Many times the church fails to give an adequate explanation about why fornication is a bad sin.

It's not that God is trying to keep you from enjoying the pleasures of sex: He's actually trying to avoid destroying you!

"Flee fornication. Every sin that a man does is outside the body; but he that commits fornication sins against his own body. What? know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have of God, and you are not your own? For you are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." [1 Corinthians 6:20]

The New Living Translation version of 1 Corinthians 6:18 puts it like this:

"Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body."

See, there is another danger to fornication that goes beyond just giving access to demons and evil spirits, as I've mentioned many times before. And just to be clear - over the next few moments I'd like to explain what the danger is. Because understanding this could very well save your life.

When you give your life to Jesus Christ, technically speaking 'you' no longer belong to just you. Your physical body belongs to God too. Which means you are NOT free to do whatever you want with your body any more, like you once did prior to knowing Jesus Christ.

Once you get saved and make an actual confession of Christ being your Lord, you have legally placed your body into His hands. You've entered into a legal contract with God, one that involves your body. It's now HIS body - not just yours. He's gracious enough to allow you to still live in it letting you be caretaker over His body - provided that you honor and respect it by treating it as a holy instrument. But make no mistake about it: your body now belongs to Him.

When you commit fornication, you are basically desecrating the body of Jesus Christ and showing utter contempt for it. You are abusing His holy body!

This would be no different than if you literally spit in His face, or if you were the one punching him and holding the whip that was used to physically rip his flesh open with. You basically might as well just put the crown of thorns on His head yourself!

You might think you're just having a little fun - or catching a quick orgasm - and that no-one is aware of what you are doing. But know for sure that God not only sees you; He's about to do something very unpleasant to you unless you quit and repent!

When we commit fornication, that is the only sin we commit that forces the hand of God to have to physically destroy us.

None of us is so special that we are beyond God's power of judgment. God will never violate His own word nor His holy edicts just to accommodate our desire to gratify our flesh with sin.

Fornication is a very serious act of violation against our holy God. It violates our contract with Him when we confessed Jesus Christ as our Lord.

Fornication is the only sin that virtually guarantees that if we indulge in it, God will be forced to destroy us. He said it clearly in His word:

"Do you not know that you yourselves are God's temple, and that God's spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is holy, and you are that temple." [1 Corinthians 3:16-17]

These were not empty words written to just fill the pages of the Bible with. This is a stern warning that carries serious weight.

We are warned that if we destroy God's temple - our physical bodies - via acts of sexual sin; God will in turn destroy us!

Why do you think there are so many sickly, diseased, afflicted and ill Christians these days - so many Christians suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure, strokes, mental problems, cancers, etc? Has God stopped healing? No, but God always keeps His word and His promises. And He has very clearly promised to physically destroy those that destroy His holy temple.

LET THIS ALSO BE A WARNING TO THOSE OF YOU WHO LOVE TO TEAR UP PEOPLE'S CHURCHES AND MINISTRIES. If you tear up someone's church - know for certain that God will physically tear you up as well, via some type of illness or disease. Maybe even with an early death. This is no joke! So please pay attention to these warnings. Paul warned us many times through His writings of this very thing:

"Anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without HONORING THE BODY OF CHRIST, you are EATING AND DRINKING GOD'S JUDGMENT UPON YOURSELF. That is why many of you are WEAK and SICK and some have even DIED." [1 Corinthians 11:27-30]

Did you catch that??? Paul has warned us that when we disrespect the Body of Christ - including our own bodies which belong to Jesus - we are in essence disrespecting the physical body and His holy blood that was shed to provide us with salvation!

Not even demons are stupid enough to go against the blood of Jesus! Yet this is what we do when we engage in fornication, then turn around and pretend like we honor Jesus by partaking in the Lord's Supper.

And doing this has brought on all types of sickness and physical ailments into the Body of Christ. According to scripture it's even caused God to bring an early death upon some.

We cannot afford to play around with sins like fornication. It's a very dangerous, deadly type of sin; and unlike all the other sins out there.

"Flee fornication. Every sin that a man does is outside the body; but he that commits fornication sins against his own body." [1 Corinthians 6:18]

And just to be sure: fornication is an old English word that comes from an older Greek word "porneia." Porneia is where we get the word pornography from.

Fornication doesn't just mean sex outside of marriage - it also means using your eyes to look at fornication via the computer screen, as well as using your hands and other objects to masturbate with. It all falls under the umbrella of fornication.

Bottom line: when you fornicate you are tempting God to kill you. And that's just stupid. There really is no other way to say it.

"We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. We should not test Christ, as some of them did, and were killed by snakes." [1 Corinthians 10:8-9]

Snakes in the Bible are also symbolic of demonic spirits - particularly the kind that brings illness and death. If you're struggling with sexual sin in your own life and would like to stop it: today is the day to ask Jesus Christ to take the wheel over your sexual appetite. You need to surrender your will to His will today - and do it fast.

You may not have as much time to get right with God as you think. Satan is a master manipulator and an exceptional liar. He'll have you believing you have plenty of time to stop sinning and getting right with God - while being under threat of destruction the whole time.

Many believers are suffering the pangs of cancers, blood disorders, immune deficiencies, body aches, pains and other physical problems - simply because they won't stop masturbating, watching porn, engaging in sex with others, sexting over the internet, and committing other sexual sins. And their troubles won't stop until they do.

Don't allow lust and sexual pleasures to destroy you! Learn how to gain control over your sexual appetite right away - and live a lifestyle that is holy and pleasing to God.