Good morning. I'm going to begin by reading question 139 of the larger catechism and then we will pray. Question 139 asks, what are the sins forbidden in the seventh commandment? The answer is the sins forbidden in the seventh commandment besides the neglect of the duties required. are adultery, fornication, rape, incest, sodomy, and all unnatural lusts, all unclean imaginations, thoughts, purposes, and affections, all corrupt or filthy communications or listening thereunto, wanton looks, impudent or light behavior, immodest apparel, prohibiting of lawful and dispensing with unlawful marriages, allowing, tolerating, keeping of stews and resorting to them, entangling vows of single life, undue delay of marriage, having more wives or husbands than one at the same time, unjust divorce or desertion, idleness, gluttony, drunkenness, unchaste company, lascivious songs, books, pictures, dancing, stage plays, and all other provocations to or acts of uncleanness, either in ourselves or others. Let us pray. Well, Lord God, we thank you for this day now before us, and we thank you for the study that we now undertake in this hour of our Sunday school class. We pray, Father, that as we consider sins forbidden under the seventh commandment of the moral law, that you would instruct and purify your church body and soul to direct us in the paths of righteousness, that we as the Christian people will be holy as our God is holy. We thank you for your law and the spirit which through faith in Jesus Christ comes to write it upon our hearts. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So as we look at this long list of sins forbidden under the seventh commandment, I think you can appreciate that the dwelling unduly on each of these sins is probably more than we want to undertake in this class. I'm not sure what the benefit would be of spending a long time asking ourselves why incest is wrong or things of that nature. So my plan is to go pretty quickly through this list. Most of what is taught here is taught very plainly in the Bible. And so actually, I intend to get through question 139 in its entirety today. But I do want to, by way of introduction, ask the question, as we look at these lists of sins forbidden under the Seventh Commandment, why are they forbidden? What is it that's wrong with these acts, these behaviors that fall under the condemnation of the Seventh Commandment and the moral law? And I think there are basically Two answers. One is, there are a lot of these acts and behaviors that are unnatural. And you heard that word at one point in question number 139. And the idea here is that that in God's world there are natural laws. There's a sort of order that was ordained by God. It's the way the world's supposed to work, and it's for our good. And so when we do things that are unnatural, it is a sort of rebellion. It's a rebellion against God's order. It is a contempt for his wisdom, his ways, and in doing that, in doing what is unnatural in rebellion against God, we cross the line into perversity, into that which is vile. and in many ways hurtful to us as human beings. So there's that aspect to keep in mind as we think, you know, what's wrong with these things? Why are they forbidden? The second one, which is probably of greater emphasis in this list, is that the things that are forbidden here under the sixth commandment of the moral law are defiling and threatening to things that are sacred and important. So this whole moral category is dealing with some things which are sacred and things which are quite important to us as human beings and to our world. In particular, there's the image of God in man, which extends to both body and soul. And the dignity associated with the image of God in man, that is sacred. and it is also important. And then there is the God-ordained institutions of marriage and family. Marriage is a God-ordained picture of the relationship between Christ and the church. The covenant of marriage and the family that grows out of it is sort of a protective institution to provide our children with the upbringing they need and to protect us as human beings from being unduly hurt. And so this also is sacred and important. And so all of these sins that are forbidden in the seventh commandment disregard the sacredness of these things and enter into areas that bring defilement upon what is sacred. And then they also are a very real threat to what's important here, to human dignity. and also to marriage and to family and all the ways that that's so important to our lives and to our society. So we ought not to underestimate the very real threat that these particular sins constitute to us as human beings and to our world. So that's all I'll say about that. At this point, you can keep that in mind as we go. As we look at the list of sins forbidden under the seventh commandment, there are basically four categories. First, sexually immoral acts. Secondly, unchaste behaviors. Thirdly, failures in moral duties. And then lastly, other provocations to uncleanness. So we begin with sexually immoral acts. So the basic idea here is that in in nature. According to what God has designed There is a there's a sort of intimacy and affection between a man and a woman Attraction brings them together Unto this intimacy and this affection and it is out of that union that the children are conceived and and born and then will be raised by the man and the woman as their parents. This is natural, it's good, it's how God's world works. But God has seen it fit to place certain boundaries, restrictions around this particular affection and intimacy between a man and a woman in order that it might serve its proper end and not be abused and to protect all of the peoples involved. So what basically we get with the covenant of marriage is that before God allows the man and the woman to enter into this intimacy and this affection, He requires them to come together, stand before Him, stand before witnesses, and in a covenant ceremony, uh... declare publicly the role responsibilities of uh... husband role responsibilities life uh... and then they swear fidelity to one another onto death uh... and so that's how the marital union is is formed uh... and again this is for the protection of the people involved there's a lot of uh... vulnerability here for both uh... from at the van and a woman they're now going to uh... proceed to to build a family together they need each other uh... in order to be able to do that with success uh... and and hopefully the children can see them again a family and those children need uh... their mother and their and their father uh... to to work together to to raise them into to be with them To support them and encourage them and guide them on to the end. That's the way it's supposed to work and the covenant of marriage is is designed to To make sure it works that way and to lead it less in that particular direction and so all of these sexually immoral acts in addition to being a sort of uncleanness. They disregard the sacredness of these things, of the covenant of marriage and of family, and they are very real threat to them. Marriages, families are destroyed as a result of these acts. So among the sexually immoral acts that are listed here are a number of what I would call acts of the body, things that people actually do. Adultery is a person who is married Engaging in this particular affection and intimacy with someone who is not their spouse. Fornication is this affection and intimacy between two people who are not married. Rape, of course, is a forced intimacy and affection without the consent of one of the parties. Incest is that affection and intimacy among people that are close kin, and there's particular bounds that are placed there by God. And then sodomy is what we would today call homosexuality, which is not a man and a woman, but a man and a man, and a woman and a woman. And so, all of these things are us as human beings taking things that God has given to us, God has designed, who have their nature and their end, and disregarding the restrictions that he has placed upon them and using them in ways that they were never intended to be used. And so we can observe pretty well from our experience that this kind of behavior, when people engage in it, is a real threat. A real threat to marriage, a real threat to family, a real threat to children, and also to the persons actually involved in the sin. It hurts them as well. And so this is why all these things are regarded as sins and forbidden by God. We also mention here all unnatural lusts. unclean imaginations, thoughts, purposes, and affections." So this is human beings basically engaging in these same things, not with their bodies, but with their minds and with their hearts. And the Bible very clearly teaches us that that also is something of the same sin, forbidden by God and His law. So, again, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on scripture proofs. These things are clearly taught in the Bible. I'll just mention a few. Hebrews 13.4 is particularly clear with respect to boundary lines. What is proper within the boundary lines is improper and sinful outside of them. So, Hebrews 13.4 says, "...marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled. But whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." Within the bounds, natural and good. Outside the bounds, unnatural and evil, and to be condemned. That's basically the idea there. We have particular instances, the condemnation of the sin of Amnon with respect to rape, the man of the Corinthian church with respect to incest, Herod with respect to incest. And so there's lots of examples of these acts of sexual immorality being condemned in the Bible. With respect to sodomy or homosexuality, there's the passage in Romans that I preached on not long ago. Homosexuality is also condemned in the Mosaic Law. We cite Leviticus 20 with regard to homosexuality, and I believe bestiality is there as well. And then Matthew 5, 28 is Jesus' teaching on lusting after a woman in your heart is committing adultery. with her in your heart. So Jesus takes the sin that is named in the seventh commandment and applies it to that particular behavior in terms of what's going on in our minds and what's going on in our hearts. Okay, so I think you're all familiar with that. Any comments or questions before we move on? All right, and secondly we would list as well unchaste behaviors. And here I'm thinking of all corrupt or filthy communications or listening there into wanton looks, impudent or light behavior, and immodest apparel. So we'll look briefly at each one of these. When we say these behaviors are unchaste, what we mean is that they are behaviors that encourage or invite sexual immorality. So they're not, in some sense, they're not actually engaging in what we talked about in the first category, but they're encouraging it and they are sometimes inviting it. So, all corrupt or filthy communications or listening thereunto. So, here we're recognizing that there is a manner of speaking, of speech, which is unchaste, which shows a lack of of regard for the boundaries, the propriety that is represented by the seventh commandment of the moral law. And when people stand around and talk to each other in this way, they're encouraging sexual We're affected by what goes into our ears. And you notice here that in this particular catechism question, there's responsibility both on the part of the one speaking and on the one hearing. You're not to stand around and listen to this stuff, let alone speak it yourself. So, scripture proof here is Ephesians 5, 3-4. which Paul says, but fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints, neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks. So the Westminster divines are recognizing here a connection. This is not an unconnected list, but it's a connected list. And we have both sexual immorality and then this sort of crude jesting and talking that's going on. Very common in our society, but for Christians we ought to recognize it to be improper, it's not fitting, it's not becoming for us because it suggests a lack of seriousness about this very serious commandment. The other thing here, and I'll include these all together, are wanton looks, impudent or light behavior, immodest apparel. I think it's important here to connect immodest apparel with wanton looks and impudent or light behavior. It's the immodest apparel that gets all the attention. And we understand why that's so. But what they're pointing out to us here is there's a sort of way of carrying yourself. that really constitutes the same kind of problem as immodest apparel, a sort of engaging with other people which is subtly or not so subtly encouraging and inviting sexual immorality. So the scripture proof here is Isaiah chapter 3 verse 16. Which says moreover the Lord saith because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes Walking and mincing as they go and making a tinkling with their feet And so what's he told what's wrong with that? What's he talking about? There's no mention of immodest apparel here though. We imagine that that might very well have been going on and But what we have is young women who are trying to draw attention to themselves. And they've learned that the way that they can get attention from men is by walking a certain way, is by carrying themselves away, by looking at these young men a particular way. Well, why are the men attracted to that? Because it's encouraging and inviting them to think about things with respect to these women that they really ought not to be thinking about. So this is one of the things that we want to be careful to watch in ourselves and in our children as well. Be careful about the influences in their lives and who they're modeling their behavior after as well because this can be as much a problem as clothes that are too tight. Comments or questions before we leave on Chase Behaviors? Alright, we move on then to a pretty large category in this catechism question. Failures in marital duties. So there's a number of things here. It begins with prohibiting of lawful and dispensing with unlawful marriages, allowing, tolerating, keeping of stews and resorting to them, entangling vows of single life, undue delay of marriage, having more wives or husbands than one at the same time, unjust divorce or desertion. Those are the sins that we're talking about under failures in marital duties. So the first is prohibiting of lawful marriages. And the passage that's cited is 1st Timothy 4.3, where Paul says, speaking about a certain group of false teachers in and around the church who included among their doctrines forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats which God has created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. So it's a sort of, a form of asceticism, a denial of the body. And these particular teachers were advocating as a sort of a path to holiness, a higher spirituality, not to marry. There was something unclean and unholy about marriage itself. And the Apostle Paul condemns that. That's not right. That's to misunderstand God's order, God's rules. These are man-made rules, and they're different from God's rules. And their problem, not only that they're wrong, But they're encouraging people not to get married who really need to get married. That the marriage is there as a sort of protection for us, that when we feel naturally this sort of attraction to the opposite sex that we're talking about here, God is drawing us into marriage in order that we would have children and raise them, and that's all good. And we make man-made laws under the heading of some sort of higher spirituality. and forbid these kind of things would create real problems for people. God's not going to bless that, and that's going to create trouble. So we don't want to, when it's time for marriage, when marriage is appropriate in the lives of two people, we don't want to stand in the way of that with any kind of man-made scruples. or rules that we have invented. There is also then the dispensing with unlawful marriages, and these are that class of passages in the Bible where God's people marry those who are not God's people. So the example here is Malachi 2.11-12 which says, "...Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord which he loved, and hath married the daughters of a strange God." So we have to remember here that part of what we're protecting, part of what's sacred and important in all this, is the raising of a godly seed. That's the purpose of marriage. The man and the woman would come together in the union of marriage to start a family, and as a family, raise the children to be God-fearing human beings. Well, if you marry somebody who's not a God-fearing human being, you have a problem, don't you? So this is forbidden throughout scripture, and it particularly says in the Malachi passage that in doing this, in marrying somebody who is an unbeliever, who is known to be a wicked, godless person, that you profane the holiness of the Lord. That's the nature of this particular offense, and that's going to bear very unhappy fruit in your life and also in the lives of your children. So that is also included among sins forbidden here. Third thing mentioned is allowing, tolerating, keeping of stews, and resorting to them. That means prostitutes, basically. And so, don't need to dwell on that, other than say, as Christians, and upholding a biblical standard, we're opposed to prostitution. In every possible way. That doesn't solve anybody's problems. So, this is bad. This is sinful to be engaged in it, or to tolerated in any way whatsoever. Fourthly are entangling vows of single life. And so the Westminster Divines have in mind here, of course, the vows that the Roman Catholic Church had men take as they entered into the monastic life, vows of celibacy. The Protestants, in going back and studying the scriptures, found this to be a foolish, unbiblical practice to require of these men vows of celibacy, to make a promise to God that they would not marry. uh... and and indeed uh... in in doing so it it has notoriously caused great problems in the lives of these men. There's always been sexual immorality among this celibate priesthood. Sometimes it becomes quite scandalous and horrible. And what we're saying here is that's the church's fault. The church not ought to impose that requirement upon those who are seeking to live live a godly life. There's no biblical basis for it. We cite Matthew 19, 10 through 11, which is Jesus' teaching on divorce after he has insisted upon fidelity or monogamy unto death. His disciples say to him, if the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry. Well, if any lack of fidelity to this one woman for my whole life is going to be a sin, then probably the best thing for me to do is not to marry. And Jesus answers and says to them, all men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. So this is not a requirement to just place on huge numbers of men who are trying to live a godly life. There is a particular gift and calling unto celibacy. We recognize that in the scriptures. uh... but to impose on people who do not have it uh... is really uh... doing serious harm to them there's not a good it's gonna come uh... fifthly They have here undue delay of marriage. So here again, marriage is to protect people. It's to give them a proper, a healthy outlet for natural affections and attractions. And so when we stand in the way of that and unnecessarily put off marriage for a long, long time, We ought not to be surprised if that causes people to stumble, if they can't actually handle the temptations that they find themselves facing under those circumstances. So, the Westminster Standards cite 1 Corinthians 7 through 9. Paul says, that is single, but every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner and another after that. I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, it is good for them if they abide even as I, but if they cannot contain, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to burn." which we take to mean burned with lust. And that's quite true. And so when we think about our young people, our children as they become young adults, we ought to take that seriously, be considerate of them as we call them to a life of holiness. We desire them to have a healthy relationship with God and with His church. that we not subject them to undue temptation by unnecessarily delaying marriage. They also cite here Genesis 38-26, which is interesting. I'm not going to tell the story, but this is the the story of Judah and Tamar, where Tamar's husband has died. Judah is supposed to marry her according to the law, but he puts it off. And what happens? sexual immorality ensues. It's not the only thing going on in that story, but it is going on. And what's interesting is that Judah acknowledges his own fault. Judah acknowledged them and said, She hath been more righteous than I, because that I gave her not to Shelah my son, and he knew her again no more. So, I'm sorry. It was his son that was supposed to marry Tamar. But anyways, it was the father then, Judah, who unnecessarily put it off, which led to this scandalous event. So here again, when it comes to when's the right time to marry, there's a lot of things to consider. There's another number of things. that we ought to keep in mind, and I hear those arguments for those things. But we also, as Christians, ought to recognize that this too is something that ought to be considered. This is something that is specifically mentioned in the Bible as being important, something that ought to be appreciated, and so weigh heavily in the balance as we consider this question, what's the right time for people to marry? I read a headline the other day that said something to the effect of, we used to marry our high school sweetheart, now we marry our graduate school sweetheart. And that's kind of true. So you're talking about a difference of 10 years there. Do you have a question? Yeah, going back, if we may, for a second to the celibacy of the priesthood, didn't Paul also say that a minister I don't interpret it that way. I interpret it to mean, if he is married, he's only being married to one woman, not two. I think there are some people who read it that way, but that's not how I take it. Specifically because Paul himself is single. Moving on, the next thing to mention is having more wives or husbands than one at the same time, what we commonly call polygamy. This is actually a more challenging argument to make from Scripture. One, because there's no explicit prohibition against polygamy in the Bible, and two, because, well, there's so much polygamy, particularly among the patriarchs in that era of the church. And yet I would point out that Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, for 2,000 years have consistently maintained that polygamy is not acceptable, that marriage is between one man and one woman, and that ought to be the standard. So, the arguments that are usually made goes back to the original marriage mandate in Genesis chapter 2. One man and one woman come together and they become one. That's the ideal. Jesus reinforces that ideal when he teaches on divorce. There's other passages that speak about being faithful to the wife of your youth. things of those nature. The other one that I think is important, actually, is the one that you just mentioned, is that it's a requirement of elders in the Church of Jesus Christ that they be the husband of one wife, and that seems to be a prohibition against polygamy. So clearly, it's not to be understood as something which is okay for us as Christians. The other thing that we might point out is that we do see polygamy in the Bible. It's a problem. You know, it doesn't really go very well when you're having to juggle two wives or whatever. So it's not actually seen in a positive light. And the question then is, you know, why did God allow it? And that's a hard question to answer. But we do feel like we have to make a distinction between God's allowing something and God's condoning it. And polygamy would be one thing that he seems to have allowed in certain cases. at a particular time but has never actually condoned. And then lastly we have two statements with respect to divorce among the sins forbidden under The seventh commandment are what we call unjust divorce or unlawful divorce. So we're acknowledging here according to the teaching of Jesus Christ in Matthew 5 and Matthew 19 that to divorce in the case of adultery, infidelity, is lawful, that a person whose spouse has had an adulterous affair is no longer bound to their vows. It's the adulterous spouse who has destroyed the marriage, and they are free to go. And so that's really important for us to keep in mind in the church, because this happens, and so when you have when you have people in the church who have been divorced under these conditions, it should be understood they've done nothing wrong. They're the victim in this particular case. And so be careful about, I mean, you really shouldn't be judging people anyways, but you could really do something unjust in thinking wrongly about somebody's divorce. Yes, sir? I would agree that that's lawful, but it also has a passage in Hosea that does discuss a situation where it's not the default reaction, just because this has happened, therefore, divorce is necessary. Yeah, thank you. Good point. But under, according to the teaching of Jesus, every other case, divorce is unlawful. It's a sin. So just because the government, just because the state acknowledges it as a cause for divorce, and they'll acknowledge just about anything for a cause of divorce, doesn't mean that God does, and it's important for us to make that distinction. So those marriage vows are serious. We are held to them. There's a reason that they are articulated the way that they are, for better or worse, Richard Porter. Sickness and health, sickness includes Drug addiction, sickness includes mental health problems. You're still bound, still your spouse. You're still committed to this person until death do you part. And so it's really, really important that we be faithful to our vows, even when it makes us unhappy. It's the right thing to do. Anything less than that is wrong. And we also mentioned here desertion. Well, I didn't divorce her, but I moved across the country. Well, it amounts to the same thing in terms of subjecting your spouse to the temptations of sexual immorality. It amounts to the same thing. There's other kinds of diversion, desertion that could be included in here. So you could be living in the same house together and yet there could be a sort of desertion. which is putting your spouse at risk for temptations that they ought not be made to bear. So we include all that here. Paul speaks of this in 1 Corinthians chapter 7. Okay, one more category. Any questions or comments? Alright, the last are other provocations to uncleanness. So just sort of a catch-all category here, but they mention a few specifics. Idleness is one. We mentioned this last week. It's not good to be idle. It's not good to have nothing to do but to stand around and go and hang out with people Maybe you ought not to be hanging out with and themselves have nothing really good to do. And things happen that way. So it's good for us to be where we're supposed to be, doing what we're supposed to be doing. People who work hard and are about their business are going to be a lot less prone to be drawn into these kind of temptations. There also is gluttony and drunkenness. So I take this to be a certain sort of lifestyle, partying lifestyle. The scripture proofs suggest that Ezekiel 16, 49, where's that? Says, behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom. Pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters. Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. So we think of the sin of Sodom as the sin of sexual immorality. And yet here's what's described as luxury and idleness. Yes, sir? I'm categorizing those under appetite control. Appetite control? Various appetites, but appetite control. Not just food, not just the blood. Right. I guess that's possible. As I look at the scripture proofs, I think that they're making a more direct connection between this kind of lifestyle and sexual immorality. But I think I understand your point. The other one that's here is Proverbs 23, 30-33, which says Those who linger long at the wine, those who go in search of mixed wine. Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it swirls around smoothly. At the last it bites like a serpent and stings like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things and your heart will utter perverse things. So, drunkenness affects the mind, it's the opening of the door onto other things that you might not consider or be drawn into under a different state of mind. I think anybody that's familiar with the effect of alcohol will agree that that is indeed the case. As we continue on here, we have unchaste company. And so, hanging around with people who have a lack of regard for the seventh commandment of God's moral law and all these ways. So here we cite the teaching of Solomon, Book of Proverbs, with respect to the immoral woman. Proverbs 5, 6-8 says, concerning her, warning his son, lest you ponder her path of life. Her ways are unstable, you do not know them. Therefore hear me now my children and do not depart from the words of my mouth. Remove your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house." So the unchaste person is in this case a seductress. The seduction is real. There is a very real appeal and powerful attraction that she communicates. And if you hang around with her, she's going to get in your head. That's what it says, unless you ponder her path of life. And if she gets in your head, then you're going to wind up in her bed. That's basically what he's saying. So don't hang out with her. Don't hang around her. Don't go near her house. Don't go over there and talk to her. You just get away from her. You ought to be able to recognize what she is and what she's about. So you go somewhere else. That's wise advice with respect to the seventh commandment. The last thing they have here in specifics is lascivious songs, books, pictures, dancing, and stage plays. So the Puritans get mocked a lot. for being anti-the arts and anti-the theater. But I think when we look at this statement and its place here in question 139 of the larger catechism, and we look at their scripture proofs, we cannot deny that there is something to this. That there are songs, there are books, there are pictures, there is a sort of dancing. There are things that go on on stage plays or movies, we would now say, which are provocations unto uncleanness. That's the effect that our engaging in or observing these things tends to have upon us. They cite three passages here, Ephesians 5, 4. Pulse is neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks. So we're connecting filthiness with foolish talking and jesting. And there's Romans 13, 13. Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness. So, he's picturing the party life here, rioting, drunkenness, chambering, wantonness. So, it's a lifestyle that's being described here. And what the Puritans recognized rightly, and certainly we should be able to appreciate today, is that there is a sort of entertainment that goes along with this lascivious lifestyle. That it's the people who live this lifestyle, who are producing the music, writing the books, making the movies, who are involved in the dance companies, and part of what they're trying to to communicate and part of what people are eager to receive from them is precisely this provocation, encouragement of, and invitation to engage in things which are sexually immoral, whether in our minds or otherwise in our lives. So it's not hard to, whenever you have words, it's pretty easy to see where this is going on. When there's pictures, it's not difficult to see that this is what's happening. We all know the moral standards and the influence that Hollywood is having upon us as a culture. With respect to songs, I would just say this, that where we recognize that music, the genre of music, is coming out of this. It's coming out of this party lifestyle. And it's designed for the party. to be used during the party or to remind you of the party or to give you encouragement on Thursday that Friday it'll be time for the party or whatever it is and this is what it's used for and this is what it leads to then we ought to be able to recognize that we have no part in it. And yes, we're going to be seen as prudes and as puritans for that, but I think they were taking sin seriously in a way that people sneered at them for. And they may sneer at us, but nonetheless, it's difficult to deny. And I would say, from what I hear, this would apply equally to most of the genres of music that you hear on the radio. You compare rap music, country music, nowadays, techno music, pop music, all that kind of music, it's all coming out of the same place. It's all encouraging the same things, just among different subcultures of our society. When I listen to country music tonight, I can't believe it. I would say two out of three songs that you hear on the country music station right now is all about the Friday night party. That's what it's about. uh... with all the insinuations of what's going to be going on there and why we're looking forward to it and how we can't wait to listen to this song while we're doing that uh... that's really what's going on there and uh... so this is uh... unhealthy to our souls So we add a catch-all here at the end. All other provocations, too, are acts of uncleanness, either in ourselves or others. We must be concerned for ourselves. We must be concerned for other people as well. We understand the principles. We ought to be able to understand what we're talking about here, what things are encouraging, what they're not encouraging, be able to apply this in a lot of different situations. So this is not, by any means, an exhaustive list. is all the time we have. Okay, let's pray.