(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

The creek is like right in the backyard, so the view is the creek, and then the bedrock, and then the hotel. I took a bath. I've done that for years. It's so nice. We went to the food, and I got some bubbles, and somebody's gonna take a bubble bath. And then we ended up going to the boarding school. We were gonna go to the church out there, but after I looked at the website again, I was like, they're not for me. They're coming really hard. It was really weird. I was like, no. And then we didn't realize how close it was. We were like, it was only an hour. It was good. We didn't realize it was that scary the night before. All right, thanks everybody for coming this evening. Please take your seats. Sorry. Sorry, little guy. If you would please turn with me to song 102. Song number 102. He hideth my soul. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord, a wonderful Savior to me. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord, a wonderful Savior to me. He hideth my soul in the plant of the rock, where rivers of pleasure I see. He hideth my soul in the plant of the rock, where shadows of divers beware. He hideth my life in the depths of his blood, and covers me there with his hair. And covers me there with his hair. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord. He taketh my turn in a way. Beholdeth me a plan, I shall not be moved. Be given his strength as my care. He hideth my soul in the plant of the rock, where shadows of divers beware. He hideth my life in the depths of his blood, and covers me there with his hair. And covers me there with his hair. With numberless blessings, each golden he found, and filled with his fullness divine. I sing in my rapture, oh glory to God, for such a redeemer has come. He hideth my soul in the plant of the rock, where shadows of dry thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths of his blood, and covers me there with his hair. And covers me there with his hair. When clothed in his brightness, transported I rise, to meet him in clouds of the sky. His perfect salvation, his wonderful love, I'll shout with the millions on high. He hideth my soul in the plant of the rock, where shadows of dry thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths of his blood, and covers me there with his hair. And covers me there with his hair. Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for this day. Thank you so much for this journey. I pray, Lord, that you bless all access to heaven, and build confidence in every spirit, so that we can be edified by the preacher. And I thank you so much, Lord, for all the souls gone out and told in the church. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen. Well, please join me in Psalm 74. Psalm number 74. Christ return. May he have more, when the day is of waking. When sunlight through darkness and shadow is breaking. And Jesus will come in the fullness of glory. And the seed of the world is old. Oh, Lord Jesus, how long, how long, here we shout the last song. Christ returneth, hallelujah, hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, amen. If may he have faith, if may he have twilight. If may he purchase health, life may stop at night. But will burst into light in the blaze of his calling, when Jesus receives his own. Oh, Lord Jesus, how long, how long, here we shout the last song. Christ returneth, hallelujah, hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, amen. Oh, Lord, joy of the light, should we go without the heat. No sickness, no sadness, no dread, and no crying, brought up through the clouds with the morning to glory, when Jesus receives his own. Oh, Lord Jesus, how long, how long, here we shout the last song. Christ returneth, hallelujah, hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, amen. All right, this time we'll go through our announcements. If you don't have a bulletin, stick up your hand nice and high until we can get to you with one. On the inside, we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 10.30 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6.30, Wednesday nights at 7. We're having our Bible study through Jeremiah, and this week we're in Jeremiah chapter 50. And we're getting into the teaching on Babylon, pretty interesting chapters, Jeremiah 50 and 51, parallel with Revelation 18. And then we've got the soul-winning times listed there below, as well as salvations, baptisms, and offering totals. Is there anyone who needs to be baptized tonight so that we could set up the baptistry? Anybody who needs to be baptized tonight? Anybody? All right. And then across the page there, the list of birthdays and anniversaries for the month. If your name's not on there, then you can speak to Mrs. Karen Rodriguez to get your name in there. She's sitting right there in the rocking chair, waving, that's Karen Rodriguez. So get her your birthdays and anniversaries for next year's inclusion, or just for the next few months. And then on the back, we've got the Bible memory passage, Philippians chapter two, verses one through 16. And then other upcoming events, especially to pay attention to, are the church camping trip, only a couple weeks away. So be sure to get signed up for that. If you're coming, it's free, but you've got an RSVP, so you can send an email to my wife's email address at the very bottom there. So that's a good way to RSVP for that. And then the mother-daughter tea party has been expanded because the May 21st just filled up so fast. Now there's a May 28th option. So be sure to RSVP if you're planning on going to that. Take the RSVP seriously. It's free, but it obviously costs us money, and we need to know how many people are coming. So make sure that if you do RSVP that you show up, all right? And then the other things that are listed there, the prenatal class tomorrow evening. And then the, and that's for ladies only, no children, and only exclusively breastfed babies. And then the homeschool field trips that are listed there as well. Please RSVP to anything that you're planning on going to. And that's about it for announcements. Do we have any first-time visitors here tonight? If so, just go ahead and stand if it's your very first time. I don't think I saw any, but just in case, any first-time visitors tonight? All right, well, in that case, let's go ahead and count up the soul winning from the past few days. Going back to Thursday, which would have been March 30th. That's Thursday, March 30th. Anything from Thursday? Two for the North Phoenix group with brother Shelley. Three more outside of that. Had a group that had 16 with brother Berg. Anything outside brother Berg's group or any of those? Two with brother Garrett's group, okay. Any other groups from Thursday? All right, and then how about Friday? Group with nine, okay. A group that had five. Anything outside of Jake's group or brother Ball's group on Friday? Anything else for Friday? Okay, and then how about Saturday? 15 for the main group with brother Dominique. How about the McPhails? 12? All right, anything outside of those two groups? One additional over here. All right, any other soul winning from Saturday? And then how about today? Let's start with the main team with Scott. You said, where is Scott? Scott? Scott, did you... 12, does that include the other teams too? Okay, so 12 total for Scott's team. 14 for brother Madison's team. Five for North Phoenix group. Okay, and then what about Gilbert? One for Gilbert. Okay, anything outside of those groups? Is that a two? Okay. Five, one and one. Okay, three, one, one. All right, what number is that? Your hand's in front of the map, I can't see it. What? One, all right. Say what? All right, any other soul winning numbers that I missed? Your number? All right, any other soul winning numbers that I missed? You're pointing at someone. Okay, so a two and a three, all right, got it. Two plus three is five, all right. Anything else for today that I missed? All right, keep up the great work on soul winning. And then that should be it for announcements. So let's go ahead and sing our Psalm of the Week here. Psalm 117, put up your hand nice and high if you don't have a green sheet. And as these are going around, we'll sing Psalm 117. For us, and the truth of the Lord, endure forever. Praise be the Lord. Praise be the Lord. Praise the Lord, all ye nations. Praise him, all ye people, for his merciful kindness is great for us. And the truth of the Lord, endure forever. Praise be the Lord. Praise be the Lord. We lost the song number 85, song number 85. This is a brand new song that we've never sung before, but it's very easy to learn. It's a really simple song, nice song. It has five verses, so you should be catching on by the fifth verse, right, if we sing all five of them. By the way, that's why we sing all the verses here. Virtually every independent fundamental Baptist church I've ever been to in my life, it's like the first and the second, or the first and the last. But the purpose is that there's so many new people coming into church, so many new believers, and people that didn't grow up in church, and the way that they learn the songs is by singing all the verses. That way, even if they've never heard it before, by the time you get to verses three, four, five, it starts to click. So you can feel like a brand new believer tonight. You just walked into church, because a lot of you have never heard this song before. Let's sing it out on that first verse, song number 85. . Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Singing the word of the name, Filling song of peace, holy, Set hands on hearts of pain, Jesus, fading, a cleansing, Watching all our sins, Jesus, fading, a feeling, All for all our pains, Jesus, fading, a promise, Fading in cowards' frame, In and in the battle, Certainly in the same, Jesus, fading, Stretching far away, By the cross's warm fields, To the plains of heaven, Jesus, be our joy, Lord, In this veil of tears, Till we reach the home land, And eternal years. That's our offering played around, and as the play goes around, let's turn our Bibles tonight to Genesis, chapter number 34. Genesis 34, and as we always do, we'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number 1. We'll follow along silently with Brother Dominique Davis as he reads Genesis 34, beginning in verse number 1. Genesis chapter 34 of the Bible reads, And Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. And when Shechem the son of Hamor, the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her. And his soul clave unto Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spake kindly unto the damsel. And Shechem spake unto his father Hamor, saying, Get me this damsel to wife, and Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter. Now his sons were with his cattle in the field, and Jacob held his peace until they were come. And Hamor the father of Shechem went out unto Jacob to commune with them, and the sons of Jacob came out of the field when they heard it. And the men were grieved, and they were very wroth, because he had wrought folly in Israel, and lying with Jacob's daughter, which thing ought not to be done. And Hamor communed with them, saying, The soul of my son Shechem longeth for your daughter, I pray you, give her him to wife, and make ye marriages with us, and give your daughters unto us, and take our daughters unto you, and ye shall dwell with us, and the land shall be before you. Dwell and trade ye therein, and get you possessions therein. And Shechem said unto her father, and unto her brethren, Let me find grace in your eyes, and what ye shall say unto me, I will give. Ask me now, I will give. Ask me never so much dowry and gift, and I will give according as ye shall say unto me, but give me the damsel to wife. And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father deceitfully, and said, because he had defiled Dinah their sister, and they said unto them, We cannot do this thing to give our sister to one that is uncircumcised, for that were a reproach unto us. But in this will we consent unto you, if ye will be as we be, that every male of you be circumcised, then will we give our daughters unto you, and we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people. But if ye will not hearken unto us to be circumcised, then will we take our daughter, and we will be gone. And their words pleased Hamor and Shechem, Hamor's son. And the young man deferred not to do the thing, because he had delight in Jacob's daughter, for he was more honorable than all the house of his father. And Hamor and Shechem, his son, came unto the gate of their city, and communed with the men of their city, saying, These men are peaceful with us. Therefore let them dwell in the land, and trade therein. For the land, behold, it is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters to us for wives, and let us give them our daughters. Only herein will the men consent unto us, for to dwell with us, to be one people. If every male among us be circumcised, as they are circumcised, shall not their cattle and their substance and every beast of theirs be ours? Only let us consent unto them, and they will dwell with us. And unto Hamor and unto Shechem, his son, hearken all that went out of the gate of his city. And every male was circumcised, all that went out of the gate of his city. And it came to pass on the third day, when they were sore, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brethren, took each man his sword, and came upon the city boldly, and slew all the males. And they slew Hamor and Shechem, his son, with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went out. The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and spoiled the city, because they had defiled their sister. They took their sheep and their oxen and their asses, and that which was in the city and that which was in the field, and all their wealth and all their little ones, and their wives took they captive and spoiled even all that was in the house. And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, Ye have troubled me to make me stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. And I being few in number, they shall gather themselves together against me and slay me, and I shall be destroyed, I and my house. And they said, Shall we deal with our sister as within harlot? Brother Gary, could you pray for us? Amen. Keep your finger there in Genesis chapter 34. Go to 1 Timothy chapter number 1. We're going to come right back to Genesis 34. But go to 1 Timothy chapter number 1. The title of my sermon tonight is them that defile themselves with mankind. Them that defile themselves with mankind. Let me give you a dictionary definition of the word defile. Number 1, to make foul, dirty or unclean, to pollute, taint or debase. Number 2, to violate the chastity of. Number 3, to make impure for ceremonial use or to desecrate. Number 4, to sully as in a person's reputation. So the word defile has to do with making something dirty or unclean, profane to pollute something, to kind of ruin something or debase something, lower the quality of something, ruin somebody's reputation or to desecrate something that's holy. It's no longer holy. It becomes common or profane if it's defiled. Or to violate the chastity of one. This term defile is used throughout the Bible. The first time that it's used is in the story that we just read in Genesis chapter 34 about Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, being defiled. It's used actually four times in that chapter. And then the fifth time in the Bible that the word defile is used, it also is used in relation to fornication. And throughout scripture, you'll see the word defile come up over and over and over again in regard to fornication. You'll also see the word defile used a lot with adultery. You'll find a lot of references throughout the Old Testament to that. And then also the word defile is often used about things in the temple or tabernacle that were supposed to be holy but they end up being defiled. Or foods that were holy and then they end up being defiled. People defile themselves when it comes to sanitation. They defile themselves with idolatry. They defile themselves with any manner of sin throughout the Bible. So defile is a word that's used a lot in the Bible to talk about a lot of different things. It's a pretty common word. But one of the big usages has to do with fornication. That's why the first five times it's used, it's referring to fornication. That's why several times in the New Testament, it refers to fornication. Why? Because fornication makes one foul, dirty, or unclean. That's why. Because fornication pollutes you. It taints you. It debases you. It violates your chastity. And it ruins your reputation. These are things that the Bible associates with fornication. Now in this scripture here, and we're going to go more into this later with this scripture, but I just want to start out by mentioning this. In verse number 10, there's a list of sins. In verse number 9 of 1 Timothy 1, it says, Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane. Then he begins to give examples of sins here. Murderers of fathers, murderers of mothers, man-slayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons. And if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine. Now I believe that this scripture here, when it says, For whoremongers and for them that defile themselves with mankind, I believe that them that defile themselves with mankind, and I'm going to show you this throughout the sermon, is the female equivalent of the whoremonger. Because the whoremonger can only be a man. We couldn't refer to a woman as a whoremonger, could we? No. Because the whore is the female. The whoremonger is the one who goes in company with whores and he would basically whore around or sleep around or fornicate. So the male person, the man, who gives himself over to fornication, lives a lifestyle of fornication. You know, your typical ASU student or just whoever else in our society that just goes from one to the next, that would be a whoremonger. And then there are those who defile themselves with mankind. Mankind meaning with men. I believe this is referring to women who commit fornication with men. Now let me show you a lot of scriptures to back that up. Let's start out in this story, Genesis chapter 34, verse number 2. And it makes sense that those would be mentioned in the same breath. Murderers of fathers, murderers of mothers, right? Man stealers. Whoremongers, they that defile themselves with mankind. Man stealers, liars, perjured persons. So you can see how those things would be mentioned in the same breath. We're going to come back to that thought, but let's go back to Genesis 34 and let's see the defilement of fornication. We already read the whole chapter, so you get the basic gist of the story. It says in verse 1, And Dinah, the daughter of Leah, which she barren to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. Now that sounds pretty innocent on the surface. Here's a young lady. She just wants to go out and meet some new friends. They just moved into a new neighborhood. They're in a new area. She wants to make some friends. Does it say that she went out to go find a boyfriend? Does it say that she went out with the intent to commit fornication? No. She has an innocent idea here of going out to see the daughters of the land. She just wants to make some friends. She's not trying to get into some illicit relationship here. But when daughters are unsupervised, they tend to get into trouble. We as parents need to make sure that we supervise our young people, and especially daughters. Daughters need to be protected. And the Bible says that as she's out seeing the daughters of the land, when Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her and lay with her and he defiled her. Why? Because fornication defiles you. That's why. It pollutes you. It's unclean. It's wrong. It ruins your reputation. And so on and so forth. And his soul clave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spake kindly unto the damsel. Now let me say this. A lot of people I feel have misunderstood this passage, where they've taught this that this was somehow forcible, or that he somehow, to use the world's terminology, that he raped her. I don't believe that that's the case. I believe that this is a consensual relationship. The reason why is because if you jump down to verse number 19, when the parents, well not really the parents because it's the brothers who step in, but when he goes to the parents and he's seeking this girl's hand in marriage, after he did wrong by fornicating, after he did wrong by defiling her, when he goes to the parents and they give demands to him, it says the young man deferred not to do the thing because, are you in verse 19? Because he had delight in Jacob's daughter, watch this, and he was more honorable than all the house of his father. God wouldn't be saying that about a rapist. If you're a rapist, you're not the most honorable person in the house of your father. There's no evidence that he was forcibly doing this. It just says that he saw her, he took her and he lay with her and he defiled her. She went along with it. He enchanted her, he seduced her, he romanced her, whatever. He showed her attention. He got her to commit this sin and they committed this sin consensually. I think that's pretty clear in the passage. I don't see any evidence otherwise. I think it'd be crazy to say he's more honorable than all the house of his father if he committed rape. No, but he did commit the wicked sin of fornication. That was an ungodly thing. This is what happens when you're hanging around with the heathen. See, he's more honorable than all the house of his brother, but he has a different morality than God's people. God's people don't believe that fornication is acceptable. He seems to be coming from a culture where that is deemed acceptable. And you know what? The culture that we live in in the United States, many people deem that totally acceptable to commit fornication. The thought literally doesn't even enter some people's mind that it's wrong. And we need to understand that if we're just going to allow our young people to just hang around with a bunch of really worldly non-Christian people, especially your daughters. Don't be surprised when this type of thing comes in. Now, I believe in having a double standard in raising your children between the boys and the girls. There, I said it. A double standard. Why? Because of the fact that the Bible calls the woman the weaker vessel. Now, that's nothing insulting to women. This isn't down on women, male, chauvinist, misogynist, pig, or whatever talking here. This is just the reality. There's a difference between men and women. And I do not believe that our daughters should be allowed to just go out on the town and go out and see the daughters of the land and run wild because this is the type of thing that could easily happen. Why? Because women are more influenced than men. You know, Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression when it came to the Garden of Eden. That's what the Bible said. Not only that, but our sons, they need to grow up someday and be independent. Our sons are going to have to go out and work and earn a living and lead their family and pay the bills and so forth. But our daughters, you know, that's not what I want for my daughters. The Bible says that God's will is that they marry, bear children, and guide the house. Therefore, my daughters don't need to go out and get a job because I'm going to support them until someday I take them down the aisle and pass them off to their husband and then he's going to support them. I hope they don't marry a man who's not willing to provide for them. So they don't have to go out. Now my sons, on the other hand, they do have to go out into the world and learn how to make a living and so forth. So therefore, I'm going to give more freedom to my sons when they're teenagers as they're going out and getting into their career and learning. And they're going to have to be strong enough to resist the temptations of this world. My daughters, on the other hand, I'm not expecting them at a young age to just be strong enough to resist the temptations of this world. I'm going to guard them and love them and protect them and cherish them and value them and be sure that when I take them down the aisle, I can actually guarantee to their husband that I am walking her down the aisle as a virgin because that's what actually they did in the Bible. The father guaranteed the virginity of his daughter. He was held accountable for making sure that his daughter remained pure. So I don't believe that your teenage daughter should be, you know, you say, oh, you're crazy, you know, this is too strict. Look, you do whatever you want. I'm not telling you what to do. You want your daughter to go get that job at a fast food restaurant when she's 16 years old so she can make some small amount of money at some part-time fast food job, get around all these worldly, sinful influences at the tender age of 16 and have a bunch of worldly, sinful guys hitting on her and getting her phone number and showing her a whole bunch of attention that maybe the guys at church didn't show her. You know, it's going to be your daughter that gets defiled, not mine. And so you can do whatever you want. I'm not telling you what to do. I'm not going to look down on you or judge you. It's between you and the Lord. I'm just giving you some wisdom gleaned from the Bible when the Bible talks about a husband being able to certify or guarantee the virginity of his daughter and when the Bible gives us this story that's a bad example where she's allowed to just go out and see the daughters of the land, how it could go bad. Look, as for me and my house, that's what I'm going to do. My daughters are not going to get a job. They're not going to go to the mall and hang out with the daughters of the land. You know, they're going to be supervised. They'll go to those places supervised. And when they go on a date, there's going to be a chaperone. They're going to be in a public place. They're not just going to be allowed to just go to some remote cliff somewhere to go park in a car, you know, and look at the stars out in the middle of nowhere. They're not going to be just dating unsupervised, just be back by midnight, be back by 11. Not going to happen in my house. I would much rather get a second job if I have to to pay for whatever they need than to send them out to work when they're 16 years old. Let them go from their parents to their husband. Ah, they're never going to have any freedom. You got it right. They're going to go from being, have their parents in authority to their husband. It's going to be a smooth transition right there. And look, if you don't like it, no problem. Go ahead and do it the world's way and see how that works for you. Because, you know what, a lot of people can tell you how it didn't work. And so that's what I believe is right. That's what I believe is the best way to do it. But look at verse 2. It says, When Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her and lay with her and defiled her. Why? Because that's what fornication does to you. It defiles you. Verse 5, And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter. Now his sons were with his cattle in the field, and Jacob held his peace until they were come. Jump down to verse 13. The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father deceitfully and said, because he had defiled their sister. And so because he had defiled their sister, they give this deceitful answer. Where they tell Shechem, the son of Hamor, they say, well listen, it's great that you want to marry our sister. There's only one catch. You have to be circumcised. And in fact, we want to make an alliance with your whole family, with your whole tribe. But you all have to get circumcised. And if you all get circumcised, then we can intermarry with you. We can become one people. Now because of the greed and covetousness of the sons of Hamor, they looked at everything that Jacob had and they coveted that wealth. And they said, man, this is going to be a great deal. We can yoke up with these people. We can intermarry with them. It's going to be great. And so they all get circumcised. Sure, no problem. They all get circumcised. Well, while they're recovering from being circumcised, while they're still sore, while they're still in pain, while they're not 100% from that surgery, then Simeon and Levi go in there and just slaughter them. Now look, what they did was wrong. In fact, the Bible condemns it. Put your finger in Genesis 34 and go to Genesis 49. Now here's the thing. We've got to compare Scripture with Scripture. When we read stories in the Bible, we have to understand that just because someone did something in a story, doesn't make it right. And even if they were good people, sometimes good people in the Bible do bad things. For example, there are people in the Bible who married two wives or three wives or four wives. The Bible never tells us that that's okay. The Bible consistently tells us that marriage is between one man and one woman. Till death do them part. But we see a lot of stories of people doing it wrong. That's why we have to compare Scripture with Scripture and get the clear statements from God's Word to interpret the story. Well here in Genesis 49, we can figure out how God felt about that story. Now if you just read Genesis 34 by itself, you might walk away with the idea of, Yeah, kill those guys! Yeah! You might think that was okay. Because it ends with them saying, Well, are we just going to let them deal with our sister as they would deal with Harlot? They kind of get the last word in that chapter. So you could walk away with the wrong impression that what they did was okay. But look at Genesis 49, verse 5. This is the Word of God being spoken by Jacob speaking as a prophet. He's prophesying here of these things that would come upon his sons. And it says in verse 5, Simeon and Levi are brethren. Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul, come not thou into their secret. Unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united. For in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they dig down a wall. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was cruel. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. So very clear condemnation coming from a clear statement of the Word of God as Jacob the prophet is speaking here and prophesying that it was not acceptable what they did. It was not right. Now, we could also look at the law of God and figure out that it wasn't right. Because, sure, for rape the punishment is death. But this was not rape, number one. And number two, they didn't just kill one guy. They killed the whole town. They killed the whole town. I mean, how could you justify that? The appropriate punishment for committing fornication is that basically he had to pay a fine. You know, he had to pay the 50 shekels of silver. He had to marry the girl and not put her away all her days if they would have accepted him. Now, if they would have said no, if Jacob and his brother and say, no, we don't want you to marry her, then they would take the 50 shekels and, you know, nuts to them that he can't have the girl. That would have been biblical. Instead, they got angry. They let wrath consume them. And they actually just went out and killed a man who probably wasn't that bad of a guy. He was more honorable than his brother. Sure, he committed fornication, but that's probably just because he's coming from a godless culture. He didn't know the word of God. And he didn't deserve to be killed for that even though what he did was wrong. Okay. So that's the story in a nutshell. And the lesson of the story is that, number one, four times the word defile is used, that fornication defiles you. And that number two, even if we commit a sin that is not punished by the death penalty legally, sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. You know, even though this guy didn't deserve to die from a criminal justice standpoint, from a legal standpoint, he still died. Why? Because if you commit sin, bad things happen. And sin will often cost you a lot more than you think it's going to. You might think to yourself, oh, well, you know, the punishment of fornication is just X, Y, and Z. Well, you know, I'm just going to do it anyway and just take that punishment. But God might just cause you to get a greater punishment. I mean, here's some guys that thought, oh, what we're doing isn't that bad, but what happened? Way worse. You think that's what Dinah wanted? You think that that's what Shechem wanted? They didn't think that's how it's going to end up. And they might have even thought, oh, well, you know, even according to God's law, we're safe. You know, of course, this is before the law was given by Moses in all the specific details. But the point is that sin will sometimes bring calamities that you can't even anticipate. So don't just sit there and think, well, if I commit fornication, God's the God of the second chance. Well, if I commit fornication, sure, it's bad, it's a sin, but it's not as bad as adultery. You know, it's not as bad as some other things. But hold on a second. God could cause you to die or to get a disease or other horrible things to happen to you that you can't even anticipate. And so it isn't worth it. Never willfully, just premeditatedly go into sin. I mean, you don't know what it's going to cost. You don't know what it's going to do. And so we ought to fear and tremble to just go headfirst into sin. Go if you would to Ezekiel chapter 23. Ezekiel chapter 23. So what have we seen so far? We've seen that the word defile means to make foul, dirty, or unclean, to pollute, taint, debase, violate the chastity of, ruin the reputation, make impure, or desecrate. That was the dictionary definition. And then if we look at it through the Bible, we see that the first five times it's used, it refers to fornication. Often throughout the Bible it refers to fornication. A lot of verses where it refers to adultery. I'll just give you one example, but there are many, many examples of it regarding adultery. I'll give you one while you're turning to Ezekiel 23. Leviticus 18, 20 says, Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbor's wife to defile thyself. Now, what's interesting about this is that it actually used the term defile thyself. Because what's the title of the sermon? Then the defile themselves with mankind. Okay, so this used the term to defile yourself in the context of adultery. Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbor's wife to defile thyself. So, if you commit fornication, you're defiling yourself. If you commit adultery, you're defiling yourself. Right? Go to Ezekiel 23. Look at verse 7 of Ezekiel 23. Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, with all them that were chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted, with all their idols. Watch this. She defiled herself. So, here's a woman who's committing fornication with a multitude of men and it's referred to as defiling herself. Right? Look at verse number 8. Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt, for in her youth they lay with her and they bruised the breasts of her virginity and poured their whoredom upon her. Wherefore I've delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians upon whom she doted. These discovered her nakedness. They took her sons and her daughters and slew her with the sword. And she became famous among women, for they had executed judgment upon her. And when her sister Aholabah saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms. She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbors, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men. Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took both one way. So we see here again in verse number 10 that fornication often leads to death. Even though that's not God's legal punishment for it. Even though it's not right for people like Simeon and Levi to murder people like they did. Yet committing the wicked sin of fornication brings calamity and destruction into our lives and could even bring death. It's very serious sin, isn't it? We saw that in Genesis, we're seeing it here in Ezekiel. It says that it defiles you, it corrupts you. The Bible calls it whoredoms. Look at verse 17. And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love and they defiled her, there's that word again, with their whoredom. And she was polluted with them. And I want you to notice this last part of verse 17. And her mind was alienated from them. This is a theme in scripture that fornication does not bring you closer to someone, it actually alienates you from that person. You see, when you're married and you have that right physical relationship between a husband and wife, it brings you closer. It improves the relationship. It's a critical part of marriage. It's a necessary component. It's something that needs to be there. Why? Because it brings us closer to our wife, right? It brings us closer to our spouse. It draws us nigh unto one another. But fornication does the opposite. Fornication tends to alienate you from the person that you're committing fornication with. Another great example of this is the story with Tamar being defiled. Remember Amnon? And he commits fornication with Tamar. Tamar, I mean, he was in love with her. I mean, he was just sick with love. He was lovesick. And he was just obsessed and infatuated in love with her. But then what happened after he committed fornication with her? He hated her, wanted nothing. He said, get out of here. I never want to see you again. You see how that's what fornication did? What did it do? It alienated Amnon from Tamar. Do you see that? Well, look down at your Bible here in verse 17 of Ezekiel 23. So it has the opposite effect of what it has in marriage. The Babylonians came to her into the bed of love and they defiled her with their whoredom. And she was polluted with them, which polluted is similar to the word defile. It's one of the dictionary words. And her mind was alienated from them. So she discovered her whoredoms and discovered her nakedness. The word discover in the Bible means uncovered, our modern word uncovered. Then my mind was alienated from her. Like as my mind was alienated from her sister. So not only does it alienate the person who is committing fornication from the one that they fornicated with, it also alienates them from God. It creates alienation between that person and the Lord. Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, verse 19, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth when she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt. For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses. Thus thou callest to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the paps of thy youth. Therefore, O Aholabah, thus saith the Lord God, behold I will raise up thy lovers against thee, watch this, from whom thy mind is alienated. And I will bring them against thee on every side. So if you study this passage carefully, you'll see that the alienation is mutual. She is alienated from them. They are alienated from her. This isn't bringing people together. This isn't improving the relationship. This isn't causing love to increase or abound. It's causing the opposite. Why? Because within marriage, it's a godly action. Because outside of marriage, it's sinful, it brings guilt, shame, reproach, and because the person that you're participating with is guilty as well, that can cause alienation there. Why? Because the woman knows that she's being defiled by this guy. She's defiling herself with this. That's not good. And then he deep down knows, I'm defiling this girl. I'm harming her. You know, what I'm doing is not helping her reputation. It's hurting her. It's polluting her. It's alienating her from the Lord. I'm alienating myself from the Lord. I'm alienating her from the Lord. She's thinking the same thing. That doesn't bring people together, especially not if they're Christians, or even if one of them is a Christian. That's going to tend to alienate you from the other person, not bring you together. Let's go into the New Testament now with that in mind. 1 Corinthians 3. So we've learned so far that fornication defiles, it brings calamity, sometimes even death, and it alienates us from those we love and from the Lord. Major sin. It has devastating effects. Defilement being the paramount thing that comes up over and over again. And that's why when the Bible talks about uncleanness in the New Testament, it's often referring to fornication. Case in point. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. For God had not called us unto uncleanness but unto holiness in a passage about fornication. He said, this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication. Why? Because God has not called us to uncleanness but unto holiness. Why? Fornication makes you unclean. 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 16. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? Watch this. If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are? Now, get this. Verse 16. You're the temple of God, right? And if you defile the temple of God, God will destroy you. Let me ask you this. If you're the temple of God and you're defiling the temple of God, then who are you defiling? Yourself. What's the title of the sermon? Them that defile themselves with mankind. And so right here, if you're defiling the temple, you're defiling yourself, and that's what this is referring to. And how do you defile yourself? Well, according to Old Testament scriptures that we looked at, Genesis 34, Leviticus 18, and Ezekiel 23, you know, those passages specifically mention someone defiling themself with fornication. Go, if you would, to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter number 12. Toward the very end of the New Testament, Hebrews chapter 12. I'll start reading in verse 15 while you get there. Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. Is the sentence over? Is that a period? And thereby many be defiled, lest there be any fornicator. Now, that relates someone being defiled with being a fornicator. He's saying, look, I don't want many people to be defiled. For example, someone could be a fornicator, and that does what to them? Defiles them. Or profane person, which made profane is another one of the dictionary definitions of defile. As Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright, go to chapter 13 of the same book. Should be on the next page. Marriage, verse 4, Hebrews 13.4. Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed, what? Undefiled. But, whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge. So, the opposite of the one who is undefiled is the whoremonger, or the adulterer, which is very consistent with all the Old Testament scriptures. Most things in the Bible are written from a man's perspective. And, obviously, we're supposed to just use common sense to extrapolate these things back the other way. He doesn't just say everything both ways for us. Usually, he talks about the man avoiding the strange woman, or the man not lying with his neighbor's wife. Obviously, common sense would tell you, as a woman, you don't lie with someone's husband. Obviously, a lot of these things clearly and obviously go both ways. And so, most of the time, you're going to see scriptures about whoremongers. And you're going to see tons of verses telling you not to fornicate, and they tell you, hey, don't lie with a harlot. Don't be a whoremonger. Don't do it. But, obviously, that goes the other way, too, that women should also avoid fornication every bit as much as men. That is obvious to anyone. And so, occasionally, I think that he'll use some specific terms that are geared toward the women. Most of the time, he's just talking to the men. So, that's why I think that it's so common that you'll see the whoremonger, but rarely will you see addressed those who defile themselves with mankind, which I believe is women who are sleeping around, according to all these cross-references that we're looking at. Go, if you would, to 1 Corinthians, chapter 6. And while you're turning to 1 Corinthians, chapter 6, I'm going to read for you from Revelation 14, verse 4. It says this, about the 144,000, these are they which were not defiled with women for their virgins. So, what's that saying? That if they had been committing fornication or adultery, they'd be defiled. But they've not been defiled with women because they're virgins. But, of course, the Bible told us marriage is undefiled. So, this is referring to the fact that they're virgins. They've not defiled themselves with women. So, it's not just saying that they're unmarried. It's saying not only are they unmarried, but they've also never committed fornication. They are virgins. Go to 1 Corinthians, chapter 6. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 6, 9, know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind. Now, this term, abusers of themselves with mankind, is the same term as those that defile themselves with mankind. It's just worded a little bit differently. Abusing themselves with mankind, defiling themselves with mankind. Okay, it says, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Now, some people would misunderstand this passage to say, hey, if you commit any of those sins, you're not going to heaven, right? Who's heard people bring this up? Or especially in Galatians 5, they'll bring up that list where it says, hey, if you do any of these things, you're not going to inherit the kingdom of God. And that list is even longer than this list, all the works of the flesh, where he goes through even more expanded of a list of these things. But what you have to understand is that, yes, it says that no drunkard will inherit the kingdom of God, no covetous, no thieves. That doesn't mean, hey, if you steal something, you can't go to heaven. Because that's the whole point of Jesus dying on the cross and being forgiven and being a new creature and having all your sins washed away. You see, the Bible says that no drunkards or thieves or covetous will inherit the kingdom of God. But you know what else it says? That flesh and blood won't inherit the kingdom of God. None of us in our current condition is fit for heaven. I'm not fit for heaven. You're not fit for heaven. Not until we are changed, transformed in a twinkling of an eye, when God will change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he's able even to subdue all things unto himself. When Jesus rose from the dead, he actually said for them to come handle him. He wanted them to know, I'm not a spirit, I'm not a ghost, I'm not an apparition. He said, come handle me for a spirit hath not flesh and bone as you see me to have. Did he say flesh and blood? No, he said a spirit hath not flesh and bone as you see me to have. I believe that Jesus in his glorified body was not flesh and blood, but he was sure flesh and bone, wasn't he? Why? Because the life of our flesh is in the blood. The blood is the life thereof, but in the new body that we receive at the resurrection, that body, the life of it is the spirit. So we're in a blood-powered model right now. We're going to get into a spirit-powered model. So Jesus Christ, when he walked on this earth, was flesh and blood. He shed his blood on the cross for us, but when he came back, he's flesh and bone, but no blood is mentioned. Why? Because at that point, the spirit is giving him life. He's not powered by the carnal life source, which is the blood. So flesh and blood can't inherit the kingdom of God. No drunkards can inherit the kingdom of God, but here's the thing. If you get saved, your sins are washed away, your sins are forgiven. Now, after you're saved, you're still going to sin. Why? Because you still have the flesh. You're still a flesh and blood human being, and you're going to sin. You're not perfect, even after you're saved. So let's say a saved Christian gets backslidden and gets drunk. You can't lose your salvation. We're sealed until the day of redemption. I mean, we have eternal life. No man can pluck us out of his hand. That's a whole sermon, right? On the fact that once we're saved, we're always saved. But the point is that when that guy who believed on Christ, got backslidden, got drunk, pulled a Noah, got drunk, or whatever, when that guy dies physically and goes to heaven, he's not a drunk anymore. Why? Because the part of him that was a drunk is in that grave. Or if he's alive at the rapture, when he's caught up to be with Christ, he's changed in a moment in a twinkle of an eye. He's no longer a drunk. He's no longer a thief. He's no longer covetous. So this is not teaching that you have to be sinless to be saved. What it's teaching is that these, and if you actually read the context of the chapter, you'd realize that the context is that verses 1 through 8 deal with lawsuits among Christians. And he's explaining, don't you dare sue your brother in Christ. You'd be better off just allowing yourself to be defrauded. You should never sue your brother in Christ. He said, why? Why? Because when you go to law before the unjust, you're going to law before the unrighteous, they're not going to inherit the kingdom. We're going to judge angels. How much more things that pertain to this life? Don't go to them. They're not going to inherit the kingdom of God. You are. They're not going to judge angels. You are. They're not qualified to judge. You are. Set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church, is what he says in this chapter. So he turns around and gives you this list to show you when you go to court against your brother in Christ, these are the kind of people that are judging you. These kind of people. And even if such were some of you, okay, yeah, but the difference is that you're washed and sanctified, which means what? That you're qualified to judge now. Because, you know, the people who you're going to when you just go to the heathen court system, they're not washed, they're not sanctified. They're still like this. Right? They're still like this. But so often these verses are interpreted with no reference to verses one through eight when verse nine is a clear continuation of the thought of verses one through eight. You know, nine follows eight, amen? And when you read verses one through eight, it's clear he's building a case. He used the word over and over again. Unjust, unrighteous, unjust, unrighteous. And then he says, don't you know that the unrighteous aren't going to inherit the kingdom of God? You're going to judge angels. So that's the actual context here. So this verse could be misused in a lot of ways. It could be misused to teach that, oh, you have to get all these sins out of your life and then you can be saved. Wrong. You get saved by believing in Jesus. You don't have to get all this. Look, if you had to get all the sin out of your life, none of us is going. You know, and look, we could do this list. I mean, I could look at this list and I could say, okay, I can do that. But in Galatians five, good luck with that list in Galatians five. And good luck with Revelation 21 eight. Good luck with not making a lie. Right? So that's a little tougher, isn't it? So we need to realize we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Another way that this passage is twisted is to say that the effeminate and the abuses of themselves of mankind are sodomite reprobates. And this is propped up by the fact that the modern Bible versions will just change it to that. In fact, some of the modern versions are now including the transgender in this. You know, because they're constantly changing to keep up with the times. So some of them now will take the effeminate and call it the transgender. Okay. And then they'll take the abuse of themselves of mankind and just change it to homosexuals. Or sometimes they'll even change it to homosexual offender. Like, well, just as a, you know, if you're an offender while you're being a homo. What in the world? So if you look at the modern versions, they put all kinds of crazy things here. Instead of effeminate and abuses of themselves of mankind, they'll change it into just trannies and homos. And their goal is to say that homos can get saved. Like, oh, it's not too late. Let's bring them into our churches. Let's have them over for a barbecue. Let's hang out with them and spend time with them. Oh, your uncle that's a sodomite. Yeah, keep him in the loop. Have him over at the gatherings. You know, that's the agenda here. And to get us to tolerate this filth. When, obviously, if we realize that they're reprobated and doomed and damned, then there's no more reason to hang out with them. And, you know, we have way too many people that just enjoy watching sodomites on TV. They enjoy watching sodomites on the movies. And they enjoy listening to music by sodomites like Elton John and Michael Jackson and somebody who's more relevant and recent that I can't think of right now. Can somebody help me out? I'm stuck in the before I was even born guys. What are the sodomite musicians of our day? All of them? No, I'm just kidding. Not all of them. But who are they? Come on, worldly ones. Help me out. George Michael. Well, he's gone. Okay, at least you got us from the 70s into the 80s. We're making progress, folks. Ricky Martin. That guy is a sodomite, right? Okay, are we into the 90s yet? We're slowly getting to 2017. You know, Miley Cyrus. Good night. What a reprobate. But does anybody really listen to it? Do they even play that stuff on the radio? Is that what they play? Nobody knows. Nobody wants to admit that they know. So, look, I don't know. You don't need the specific examples, do you? There's a lot of sodomites in the music industry, okay? There's a lot of sodomites in Hollywood. I don't know what their names are necessarily, but they're there. I guarantee it. If you research it, you'll find that that's the truth. You know that's true. I don't think anybody's disputing that tonight. But the thing is, people will enjoy watching these either either sodomite actors playing straight people or straight actors playing sodomites. It's both an abomination. Both should be. Oh, well, he's straight in real life. Whew. Thank goodness. You know, look, if you found out that a musician is a sodomite, that should just cause you to just, well, I don't want to listen to this ever again. I mean, that should just cause you to just be rejected out of hand. I mean, good night. I mean, is there any criteria for the music you listen to? You just listen to anything that the world turns out, even the sodomites? I mean, good stinking night when we would just take pleasure in those who the Bible calls an abomination. He doesn't say they commit an abomination. He says that they are an abomination. They are an abomination. And so the agenda here is to change. And look, whenever the modern versions change something, that should cause you to sit up real straight and say, whoa, I wonder why the devil changed this. Because all the changes are strategic. So if they're going to replace abuses of themselves of mankind with a homo, that makes that interpretation very suspect right away. Because I know who's behind these modern versions. So that makes me sit up and say, wait a minute, you know, what are they trying to do here? What are they trying to twist? What are they trying to do? If you actually study the context, and if you would, keep your finger in 1 Corinthians 6. I just want to remind you of this. Keep your finger in 1 Corinthians 6. And let's compare it to 1 Timothy 1. Because these are the only two times that this term is ever used in the Bible. Okay? Now, let me also say this for you. As somebody who's come under a lot of fire for preaching against the sodomites, I've researched this subject pretty extensively. There are times when this term has perplexed me and confused me because it's a vague term. And here's the thing. I've studied it and looked up and I read everything that I could find about it. And here's what I found about this term. This term, abuses of themselves of mankind or them that defile themselves of mankind. Here's what I found to be the case. Not only does this term only occur twice in the New Testament, but trying to go back to the Greek is not going to shed light on this. Why? Because this term does not exist in any literature outside the Bible. So you can't look it up in some ancient Greek story of Homer or some ancient Greek historical document and say, well, you know, we can see how it was used over here in 400 B.C. or 300 B.C. or 200 B.C. So therefore, that's what it means here. Going back to the Greek is going to do nothing. And by the way, I don't believe that going back to the Greek ever does anything for you. I think we have everything we need right here in the English. Let's just make this our final authority of faith and practice. Amen? The King James Bible, it's trustworthy, it's accurate, it's the Word of God. But anybody who tries to tell you, oh, if you go back to the Greek, you know, it's going to tell you what I mean. Hold on a second. This word never existed. Paul is the first person that we have in the history of mankind to ever use this term in 1 Corinthians 6 and in 1 Timothy chapter 1. It's never occurred anywhere else. There's nothing to compare it to. The only outside sources on this are hundreds and hundreds of years after the New Testament where they're getting it from this, they're using it from this. That doesn't tell us anything. And so a lexicon is going to tell you nothing. Going back to the Greek is going to tell you nothing. Now, some people will try to take apart the Greek word by its components and say, well, you know, this half of the Greek word means man and this half of the Greek word means bed and so ergo, you know, it means X, Y, and Z. Here's the problem with that kind of logic. Okay, let's do that with butterfly. What does a butterfly have to do with butter? And the answer is nothing. So you can't always just take a word and just take its part or a joystick. What does it have to do with joy? Nothing. So you can't just take it apart and say, oh, butterfly, it's like a fly except it eats butter or it's attracted to butter. No, no, butterflies eat milkweed, right, if they're a monarch butterfly, right? They don't eat butter. They have nothing. What in the world, it should be called a flutterby, not a butterfly. That would make more sense, right? So that's just a couple of examples. And I could give you example after example after example where a word is not the sum of its parts. So you can't just go by that. But even if you did take those components, man and bed, right? Well, you know, according to what we are seeing in Scripture where these women are constantly being referred to as defiling themselves with men, like in Ezekiel chapter 23, well, they're going to bed with men. So man, bed, there you go. It's somebody who goes to bed with men. Amen. See, there's nothing to say that this word is masculine. I don't care what some Greek scholar told you. There's zero evidence. In fact, the ending of this word in the original language is an ending that can go either way and it usually leans female. It tells you nothing. So what we ought to do then is just look at the Bible in English, right? Instead of trying to go to some foreign language that I'm not fluent in, that you're not fluent in, that the preacher down the street is dead sure not fluent in, that your Bible college teacher, I don't care what you think about, was probably 99% sure that he's not fluent in, why don't we just all pick up our English Bible and look at the term and look at the context and compare Scripture with Scripture, look at the word defile, look at the Scriptures, look at Ezekiel 23, look at Leviticus 18, look at Genesis 34, compare 1 Corinthians 6, 1 Timothy 1 and get the context of both passages and I think that it's clear what it means because of the fact that in 1 Timothy 1, if you're there, it says in verse 10, For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind. Now this could easily be a pairing sort of like murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers. I mean, did he really have to include that? Well, don't murder your mom either. He could have just said murderers of their parents. But he chose to get specific. Murderers of fathers, murderers of mothers, whoremongers and then they defile themselves with mankind. That could easily be the female counterpart based on that. Then if we go to 1 Corinthians 6 and get the context, we look at verse number 9 and it says, abusers of themselves with mankind and then if we only just go down just a few verses to verse 18, it says, Flee fornication, every sin that a man doeth is without the body, but he that commiteth fornication sinneth against his own body. Now doesn't that fit in perfectly with abusing yourself? Sinning against your own body? That's a self-abuse right there when you're sinning against your own body. Not only that, but remember the scripture that I showed you in 1 Corinthians 3, which is in the context of the same book, 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 3 talked about him that defiles the temple of God God will destroy, you're the temple. So that's about defiling yourself, defiling the temple of God. What's it say in verse 19? What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye 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 God's. That's a lot of evidence. That makes sense. That's a lot of evidence that them that defile themselves of mankind is one who commits fornication being a female, the opposite of a whoremonger or the counterpart of a whoremonger. So what's the takeaway from this sermon? Young people, don't take fornication lightly. I don't care if in 2017 the world considers this not a big deal. Teenagers, young people, singles, listen to me. Fornication is a big sin. Why? It defiles you, it pollutes you, it ruins your reputation, it'll get you kicked out of the local church if you don't repent. Also, it is something that could even cause calamity to come upon you up to and including death, not by the law, not by God's law, but just by the simple fact of reaping what you've sown that bad things happen when you sin. And sometimes you sow a little seed and you reap a lot. And sometimes you sow the wind and you reap the whirlwind. So realize that fornication is a big sin. It defiles you, it makes you unclean. And you know what? You're defiling yourself, you're abusing yourself. And especially ladies need to listen up and realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and you need to keep yourself pure and chaste and clean. Look, let me say this to the ladies. Respect your body, respect yourself. Don't just give yourself away cheaply. If he wants your body, he better put a ring on it. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free is what's been said. You need to have some respect and not to just give yourself away cheaply. No, you need to be married. And if he's not willing to marry you, he doesn't deserve to put his hands all over you. And if he's not willing to commit to you, to love you and honor and keep you in sickness as in health, in poverty as in wealth and forsaking all others to keep himself only unto you so long as you both shall live, then he's not worthy of you. Have some dignity, have some respect. You say, well I'm not that good looking. Hey, have some dignity and respect anyway. Because you know what? There's a guy out there who's going to look at you and think that you are the most beautiful woman that he's ever seen. Don't just think, oh, because I don't look like the Hollywood style or the Hollywood supermodel because I don't look perfect or maybe I'm a little bit overweight or my complexion's not right or something wrong with the way that I look. And then you just think to yourself, oh, well this guy's showing me attention and I don't know when I'm going to get attention again. Oh, this guy wants to fornicate with me. Well, I better just go along with it so that I can keep this guy because he's the best looking guy that's ever, or he's the only guy who's showing me any attention. This is what happens, friend. And even beautiful young ladies could often just get a complex for whatever reason that, oh, I don't look good enough or I don't look right. And then they devalue themselves. But listen, it's not what's outside that counts anyway. It's what's on the inside. And you know what? There's going to be a man someday that will look at you and he'll see the inner beauty, he'll see the good works, he'll see the godliness, and he'll admire you. Have you ever noticed that when you meet someone and you find them to be a rotten human being that they begin to get uglier to you over time? No matter how beautiful they are, no matter how handsome they are, when you know them to be a rotten person, they get uglier and uglier and uglier. And have you ever noticed that people that when you first meet them they're a little hard to look at? They might look a little rough when you first meet them. Have you noticed that when you get to know them and they're nice people and you like them and they're godly and you love them, have you noticed how they get better and better looking? Have you ever heard the saying, the face only a mother could love? Why? Because every mother loves their child. They don't just, oh, he's ugly. Why? Because love transcends the outward appearance. So just because you think, oh, I don't look right or I don't look perfect, don't devalue yourself. You're every bit as valuable as that beautiful babe or whatever that you're comparing yourself to. You have the same value. And in fact, if you stay pure and she defiles herself, you have more value. There are some men who will recognize that value and they'll admire that value and they'll love you and they will even love your appearance. Why? Because the beauty is in the eye of the beholder, that's why. So don't cheapen yourself. Don't devalue yourself. Have some respect for yourself. Realize that you're a child of the king. You're an ambassador for Christ. You're an important person. You've been bought with a price. The Holy Ghost, don't defile the temple. If you defile the temple, get ready to be destroyed. And if you're not destroyed, it's by the grace of God that you're not destroyed. But don't you just go sowing your wild oats and then pray for a crop failure and expect God to just, oh, he's going to look the other way. Well, you know what? It doesn't always work that way. Sometimes people commit fornication and them and their whole family get killed. That's what happened in Genesis 34. Is that the kind of sin that you want to play with? No way. So we need to understand that both as men and women, this sermon is directed especially toward the ladies, not to defile themselves with mankind, not to defile the temple of God, not to commit fornication, but to keep thyself pure, to keep yourself pure and clean for your husband. Now you say, Pastor Anderson, I've already made that mistake. I've already sullied my reputation. I've already been defiled. Don't get this attitude that says, oh, well, I've been defiled, so I'm just going to get even more defiled. That's ridiculous. Look, start over, pray to the Lord, confess your sin, forsake it, and the Bible says that if you confess and forsake your sin, you find mercy. You find mercy. You move on. You start over. I'll give you a clean start if you're humble and you go to Him and you confess the sin and you get it right and you move forward. Don't just get this attitude that's, oh, I messed up, I'm doomed. No, because there are levels of being doomed. And plus, when you do stuff and then you hear the hard preaching and then you get it right, God understands, okay, you're responding to preaching. You're responding to my word. Good job. He's going to bless you for that. But when He sees the one that's being often reproved and hardening their neck, that's the one that's going to be suddenly destroyed and that without remedy. So unto whom much is given, of Him shall much be required. Maybe you committed fornication in the past because you hadn't heard a hard sermon about it. Now that you have, you're accountable for this message. And God might be thinking to Himself, I warned you, now I'm going to destroy you. How do you know? How do you know when you're going to cross that line? And look, obviously you can never lose your salvation, amen? Thank God for eternal life. But you know what? You can sure mess up your life down here on earth or even have your life cut short when you defy God's word. And so as the Bible says, flee fornication. Run screaming in the other direction from fornication. Get away from it. Flee it. Run from it. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and we thank you for the institution of marriage, Lord, and for the blessed relationship. And thank you, Lord, for the physical relationship that you blessed us with in marriage that helps draw us together as a couple, Lord. Thank you for that important renewing and that important relationship that we have. But Lord, help us as Christians, Lord, to raise our children to flee fornication and help all the singles to flee fornication and to realize that fornication isn't love. Fornication is not loving at all. Fornication is alienation. Fornication is sin. Lord, help us as a church to be a church that's clean in your sight and that avoids and flees this horrible sin of fornication. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Song number 82, when he cometh. Song number 82, when he cometh. Actually, song 21, I'm sorry. Song number 21. What a wonderful Savior. Song number 21. Song number 21. Christ has forced an atonement big. What a wonderful Savior. We are redeemed, the price is great. What a wonderful Savior. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Jesus. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord. I praise Him for the cleansing cloud. What a wonderful Savior that reckons that my soul to God. What a wonderful Savior. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Jesus. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord. He cleansed my heart from all its shame. What a wonderful Savior. And now He reigns and rules therein. What a wonderful Savior. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Jesus. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord. He gives me overcoming power. What a wonderful Savior. And triumph in His shining hour. What a wonderful Savior. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Jesus. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord. To Him I give in all my heart. What a wonderful Savior. The world shall never share a heart. What a wonderful Savior. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Jesus. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord.