Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornicationand the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Gal. 5:19-21 NKJV) One of two things is true today " the world either believes it can treat God with utter contempt or no longer believes in him and his word period. Man has always had to battle sexual desire and temptation and has often lost the battle but what has changed in the past few decades is that men and women are willing to openly flout their sin and no longer see themselves as doing anything morally or spiritually wrong.

I went to a tiny high school in the early 60s. There were only 40 to 45 of us (the entire school) and the school was closed the year I graduated. That number probably represented 20 to 25 families and yet out of all those families there was not a single family where the child was not living with both his/her birth parents who were married to one another " not a step child among us, not a single case of a child from a single parent home. Do not tell me the world has not changed. Now days you get a child in school and his/her last name means nothing. Chances are about as good as not that he does not have the last name his/her parents have on the enrollment card. In the year 2007, the last year I could find stats for, nearly 40% of the children born in America were born out of wedlock and that was a 25% jump from just 5 years earlier.

Men use to know fornication was a sin. Being prone to lusts and desires of the flesh the sin was still often committed but people generally realized they had done wrong when they became involved in it. Today there seems to be no conscience of such. Be that as it may the Bible still teaches that if we will not repent, and obey the gospel if we have not done so, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption. (Gal. 6:7-8 NKJV)

The Greek word behind the English word fornication in the older Bible versions is often in the newer versions translated as sexual immorality. There is a reason for that. The Greek includes more than what we generally think of by the word fornication. We usually limit that word to illicit sexual intercourse between at least one unmarried partner with the other partner being either single also or married to another. We say the unmarried party is a fornicator. The reality is the word is much broader in meaning than just that one narrow definition and thus Bible scholars involved in the translation process have tried to make that clear with the phrase sexual immorality. All of that being said it still remains true that unmarried sex, as in sexual intercourse, is fornication and condemned in the Bible.

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality (fornication " KJV " DS) among you, and such sexual immorality (fornication " KJV " DS) as is not even named among the Gentiles"that a man has his fathers wife! (1 Cor. 5:1 NKJV) Paul wants the man removed from the fellowship. He says, you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among youdeliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. (1 Cor. 5:2-5 NKJV) This was a man who was a Christian but who stood condemned because of his fornication.

Today we celebrate, or are expected to, the birth of children born of fornication. Now do not get me wrong, such babies are deserving of all love, care, kindness, and attention as they are innocent and pure as the falling snow but Mom and Dad have done the children no favors, none whatsoever, and to expect relatives and others to just totally rejoice over Mom and Dads sin which is what is expected is a little tough to bear. They put us in a position where we almost are forced to rejoice in sin. I do not know about you but I kind of resent this type of treatment.

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Cor. 6:9-10 NKJV)

One more passage and then I close. Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you also once walked when you lived in them. (Col. 3:5-7 NKJV)

Two points need to be made concerning this passage. (1) It is clear from this passage, as well as others I have quoted, that unrepentant fornicators are in serious trouble with God no matter how accepted the sin is in American society today. (2) One can live in a state of fornication " when you lived in them. What people often do not know is that the word fornication, in the meaning of the Greek word, includes the sin of adultery, a state in which one can live according to Col. 3:5-7. When the word fornication is used in a text alone without the word adultery accompanying it then it should be given its broader meaning to include all sexual immorality which includes adultery. Again the newer versions have eliminated a lot of this problem by use of the term sexual immorality. The NIV, for example, renders Col. 3:5 as sexual immorality rather than fornication meaning the Greek term is to be considered in its broadest application. John the Baptist had his head removed by Herod. Why? Because Herod was living in a state of adultery and John told him about it, It is not lawful for you to have her. (Matt. 14:4 NKJV) Married? Yes! An adulterous marriage. Herodias is never in the Bible referred to as Herods wife even though he had married her. She is always called his brother Philips wife. (Matt. 14:3, Mark 6:17, Luke 3:19 NKJV)

The bottom line is America is full of fornication and no one seems to feel the least bit guilty nor seems to have the least bit of the fear of God within them. I would wish them good luck as they are going to need it but if I want to be on Gods side and I do then I cannot do even that much. All I can do is point out the sin and give a warning. That I have done. Slap God in his face at your own risk.

Denny Smith's articles are all listed on his web site - dennysmith.net - along with many audio sermons by Waymon Swain. There are also links that will take you to hundreds of other articles and audio sermons found on other recommended sites.

God does not consider ignorance an excuse for sin and will not overlook a sin just because you or I were ignorant of the sin when we committed it. The verse that teaches this is found in Lev. 5:17, If a person sins, and commits any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the Lord, though he does not know it, yet he is guilty and shall bear his iniquity. (NKJV) (See also Lev. 4:1-2, 13, 22, 27 and Lev. 5:2 and 5:15 bearing in mind as you read that to sin unintentionally in these verses is to sin in ignorance.)

Gods nature is such that he cannot bear nor tolerate sin. The Psalmist said, in prophecy of Jesus, You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions. (Psalm 45:7 NKJV) Jesus hates wickedness and wickedness is just another name for sin. Gods people are also to hate evil. You who love the Lord, hate evil! (Psalm 97:10 NKJV) That is what it will take within us to develop a Christ like character. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. (Prov. 8:13 NKJV) Hate evil, love good. (Amos 5:5 NKJV)

Since, as the Psalmist says in Psalms 119::172, all your commandments are righteousness (NKJV) deviation from them, whether it be intentional or not, is unrighteousness, thus evil, thus the thing God cannot tolerate and hates. In Isaiah 61:8 the Lord says, For I, the Lord, love justice. (NKJV) Thus when Jesus returns to judge the world he will be judging it in righteousness. (Acts 17:31) It is obvious that if God had not loved us and intervened on our behalf his righteousness would have demanded our condemnation for our sins, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Rom. 3:23 NKJV) Fortunately, God does love us and did intervene for us by sending Jesus into the world to be a propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:10) which simply means Jesus paid the penalty for our sins so that we will not have to which allowed God to be just in punishing sin and yet give unto us a way to be saved through faith in Jesus. This is the gospel story.

We need to make applications of these truths. What can we learn from what we have said?

(1) The person who has never heard the gospel is lost. Everyone of us has a tendency to say to ourselves, based on emotion, not the truth of Gods word, that if a person lives in a remote land far away where the gospel has not been taught and/or is not readily available to him he will be saved without the gospel. The Bible teaches just the opposite.

Why go preach the gospel anywhere if a man is saved without it? Why bother a man if he can be saved, and already is, without the gospel? If a man is saved without the gospel it is better to leave him that way than to teach him the gospel. Why? Because if you teach him the gospel and he rejects it he will be lost.

Why did God command the gospel be preached in all the world to every creature (Mark 16:15 NKJV) if it is not needed? If a man can be saved in his sins then the conclusion must be that sin is no big deal and Jesus died for nothing. Do we believe that?

(2) Another lesson learned is that there is an enormous burden upon Christians to preach the gospel throughout every corner of the world no matter how remote. If a person is lost without the gospel and we were commanded to take the gospel to them (the Great Commission) but did not nor did we make any efforts to do so then what becomes not only of those who did not hear but to those of us who made no effort that they might hear?

(3) Another lesson we learn from this is that if ignorance is not an excuse God will accept then it is our duty to study and work as hard as we can to learn all we can about Gods word. We accept the fact we will be saved by Gods grace and not by perfection in commandment keeping and rejoice in that fact but, that having been said, what about the man that takes a lackadaisical attitude toward learning Gods will and obeying his commandments. Does Gods grace cover mans indifference?

Does a man want to try and go to heaven as one who never cared enough about God and his will to try and learn his commands so he could obey them? I fear such a man may well meet up with 2 Tim. 2:15 at the Day of Judgment. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (2 Tim. 2:15 NKJV) The indifferent man has not been much of a worker in Gods word.

Gods grace covers only a certain class of Christians and that class does not include the lukewarm and indifferent. Jesus described the church at Laodicea as wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked (Rev. 3:17) and says, So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth. (Rev. 3:16 NKJV) Gods grace is not for the lukewarm, indifferent, and disobedient unless and until they repent.

In closing I reiterate ignorance does not excuse sin with God. That being the case we have an obligation to live a life of knowledge which means for all of us it is time to get the Bible out and read and study it. The old King James Version says, study to show thyself approved to God. (2 Tim. 2:15) Let us not sin because of willful ignorance of Gods word " willful in that we prove ourselves to be too indifferent and lazy to study it and try to learn from it.

Denny Smith's articles are all listed on his web site - dennysmith.net - along with many audio sermons by Waymon Swain. There are also links that will take you to hundreds of other articles and audio sermons found on other recommended sites.

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