…punishes us, punishes the people of the Covenant. When people cry out for social justice these days, they usually do not have in mind what God has in mind, it seems to me, and almost never have God as the one who is demanding justice. But rather they are demanding justice.
It’s quite interesting. But the justice we seek, righting the wrongs in accordance to God’s law, will be imperfectly enacted by men, of course, but it will be perfectly enacted, and always is perfectly enacted by God, even in this life. The justice is perfect and right, even if we don’t see the full consequences and the full execution of it now.
And that should give us comfort, that often those who fight against God’s people, and hurt the least of His children, will indeed be punished. Even if a little here and now, but ultimately punished fully. God is just.
He will exercise full social justice, as biblically defined. But especially that God will punish, or rather discipline, to bring punishment for the purpose of instruction, and the change of heart and action. That’s what that particular word is.
There’s a Hebrew word for that. Disciplining is a nice translation for it. Not just punishment, but for a purpose and an end.
Not just to bring justice as such, but to bring a change in the person, and the churches, and the communities, attitude, and their actions. Isn’t that what you want to do with your kids, right? That’s why you discipline them, in the best sense of the word. God does that.
He does that for His people, for their good, for our good. This is what we witness often in the Old Testament. God disciplining His people, as a Father disciplines His children, and to the same ends.
This is not the discipline of vengeance, and of punishment only, of a judge, but of a loving and protecting Father who knows better. He knows what’s going to happen down the line in your life, and that you need to learn these lessons now, rather than later. That’s what a loving parent does.
And it’s not just for sins against Him. It’s interesting here. We’re used to that, right? One of the major examples of sin through the prophets is Israel’s false worship.
Over, and over, and over, the slow learners. And yet here, it’s not just against God and the first table, but against each other, the second table. And so if people mean that when they say social justice, the word social there, then that’s not as bad.
There is a second table. It’s with respect to one another. In particular, a society and a church of people of the same faith and belief.
God disciplines His people, in other words, for sitting against each other. He does that through the means of a faithful church that exercises discipline. We know about that.
And He does that through each other, as you admonish one another, and He does that through providence. And that’s what we see. We see all of these in the Old Testament.
But we see, I think especially, providence. Here, it’s Assyria coming. God’s going to use the hardship of life, things that seem random to us, difficult, out of control.
God’s like, I’m behind that. I’m using these things for a purpose. Unjust people are warned by God, verses 9-12.
Unjust People Warned
The Lord’s voice cries to the city. It’s an ongoing cry. It’s not just this one time when Micah is speaking out to Jerusalem, I take to be the city.
They’re mentioned there in the beginning of chapter 1, as you recall. He lists them by name, because Jerusalem is the headquarters. That’s where all the wickedness often is.
You have a lot of sinners together, you have a lot of sin. It’s just the nature of it, simple arithmetic. Not like there’s no sin in the countryside, it’s just less sin relative, because there’s less people there to sin.
And so cities often have been sources of corruption, and to the youth, and to families and the like. And even is so to this day. Maybe especially so with all our fancy technology, which now can reach to the other parts of the countryside, and bring wickedness with them.
So, the city. The city is what he’s focusing on, that’s where the leaders are. It’s one of the main themes there, as we see in Micah.
He goes after the judges, he goes after the priests, he goes after the leaders, because they have a lot of power and influence, and therefore they have a lot of responsibility. The Lord’s warning, he cries to the city, he’s crying, the whole prophecy is him crying to the city. Warning them, that’s what the crying out is of course, it’s not tearful, it’s a yelling forth.
Pay attention, listen, judgment is coming. And it’s through the prophet, the Lord’s voice cries in the city. The prophets are called the voice of the Lord in the Old Testament.
God speaks through the prophets, that’s their function. It’s a unique function. To the corrupt centers, as I pointed out, especially Jerusalem.
Wisdom shall see your name, that is, the wise among you. So here, the personifying, they’re using a metaphor for wise people, calling them wisdom. You are wisdom, you who see what I’m talking about, understand what city I’m referring to.
Not just the city, but the intent, and what’s the purpose of talking about the city. Where the corruption is, he’s talking about the corruption, ultimately. Not the city as a city, as though God hates cities.
He wants to judge, oh there’s a city, I better judge it. Because of the wickedness there, it’s all shorthand. It’s all very poetic and strong and striking language.
Wisdom shall see your name, and by implication understand and comprehend what I’m talking about when I say, and I’m crying out. Repent, repent Jerusalem, repent leaders, repent people of Israel. And that’s what we get in the next chapter, and now he goes down to the people level in chapter 7. God will punish them.
And the punishment will come with what? The rod. Hear the rod, who has appointed it? God has appointed it. Hear the rod, what? Learn from the rod, listen to the rod, listen to the discipline of the rod.
It seems to be saying, that God uses these things for his people. So this is clearly a warning. He’s not saying it’s going to happen, he’s saying, he’s urging them.
This is God crying to the prophet saying, pay attention. I’m not doing this because I like to punish you. And God is not a sadomasochist.
He says, I don’t delight in the death of the wicked. Isn’t that interesting? He doesn’t delight in the death of the wicked. It’s not as though it’s a joyful thing to punish people.
It’s a righteous thing to punish people. And God certainly delights in righteousness and in justice in that sense. But he’s not a sadomasochist, and we see that especially for his people here in the covenant.
He’s warned them, he continues to warn them. He says, pay attention, heed me, is the point here. Heed me, you unjust people.
You have been warned and are continuing to be warned by me because I love you. That’s why you warn people, at least I think. I hope it is the case in God that he does it because he loves them.
When people are ignorant of the sins they’re being punished for, what do you do? You fix that ignorance and you instruct them, don’t you? And God does the same thing. He instructs these people here, so God in his patience for Israel has not been fully punished yet. Assyria hasn’t obviously come down upon them.
This is just beforehand. This is Micah warning them. He gives them a list of the sins so that they can repent.
They’re not left in ignorance wondering, what can I do? What’s my particular sin? God names sins. There’s a time in the church, there’s a time in your family, there’s a time in your friendship in the church to name sins. Because God names sins and it’s a good thing.
How else are you going to repent? When we repent of particular sins, we must repent of particular sins. Not vagaries that I’ve heard people talk about at conferences. What was us? We’ve kind of been bad people and we’re sinning.
Okay, that might be the case. But in some cases it’s just kind of vague sins or particular sins, even group collective sins. Here, the list, sin invade against verse 10 through 12.
Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the short measure that is an abomination? Shall I count pure those with the wicked scales and with the bag of deceitful weights? You see what he’s talking about so far? You hear the language? He’s talking about economics, isn’t he? He’s talking about purchasing and buying and selling and how people are stealing and ripping each other off. That’s what he’s talking about. Unjust weights and measures was the old phrase.
And he begins this section here in verse 10. Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked? Yes. A rhetorical question.
Yes, there is. These men, the treasures of wickedness, he’s saying, they’ve gathered treasure wickedly, not that treasure itself is wicked, in which case David would be wicked because he had treasures. Abraham would be wicked.
No, it’s how they achieved it, how the rich got rich, by ripping off the poor and stealing from the middle class, as we saw in chapter 2 and 3. This is what they did. And, frankly, they still continue to do. Not all the rich, of course, but many rich, unfortunately.
It’s a striking description of false business practices. The rich businessmen want more money has always been an old trope because there’s a lot of truth behind it. A lot of truth behind it, unfortunately.
They shortchange their customers. God is concerned with these economical issues to the extent that they are addressed in God’s law. And he is especially angry because they are abusing one another.
We understand this. I mean, when you mouth off to your parents, even when you’re 55, that is a lot more offensive, a heinous sin, than mouthing off to a stranger. Perhaps we don’t think that way because a lot of what we hear in America is equal, equal, equal.
That’s equal according to what axis, right? According to what definition. The equality is it’s a sin either way, yes. But it’s a heinous sin.
It’s a worse sin against your parents, for they’re the ones that raised you, took care of you, fed you. A stranger’s done nothing. That’s why they’re a stranger by definition.
It’s a more serious sin. And that makes sense morally when we overlap what I’ve preached on before, the concentric circles of responsibility and love, right? These things are lost in this egalitarian language we have in our society. Be wary of that, brothers and sisters.
And that’s why I point out here, and God did it earlier in chapter 2 and 3, he was especially angry because you did it against those who were like you, the same religion or the same nation state, right? Not strangers in other words. Your brothers, your sisters, your neighbors that you grew up with. He was especially angry with that.
I had a Christian do that to me on our first house. We bought it up in Thornton. I hired him to install a sprinkler system, as I recall.
I don’t think it was the grass. It was just a sprinkler. Maybe some grass in the backyard too.
I think the front came with the house. That’s how they do it these days, or they used to. The backyard needed some grass.
It certainly needed a sprinkler system. He never finished it. He never finished it.
He did me wrong. This guy claimed to be a Christian. It turned out he went to the same church I grew up with, my father went to.
And I never knew what happened. I left many messages. Remember, I called him.
I’m upstairs. I’m like, you know, hey, buddy. I paid you.
Could you come here and finish the rest of the sprinkler? We had a sprinkler head sticking up way in the back. It wasn’t buried down or anything. I never heard back from the guy.
It happens. It’s wrong. It’s unjust.
Of course, he shouldn’t do it to a pagan, but he especially shouldn’t do it to a Christian. I mean, that’s the flip side of Galatians 6.10. What does it say? Do good to all men, but especially. You see the emphasis there? So reverse that on the negative.
When you sin, it’s worse with the especial part, because the laws of God have two parts, right? The positive and the negative. When you have the emphasis there, there you have the emphasis. Yes, you shouldn’t do it to them, but especially to the household of faith.
He especially sinned against me. I mean, it wasn’t the end of the world. I wasn’t going to chase him down.
The sprinkler heads came up, and they shot, and that was good enough for me. I think I adjusted them, got it working somehow. But still, it happened.
So, the little list here we have, verse 10, 10b, and the short measure, that is an abomination. Of course, that’s the container, how much grain you buy, for instance. The wicked scales, we all know what scales are.
The balance, how much you’ve got in gold and the like. And you would weigh it against stones, for instance, how much you’re going to buy. They would measure by the weight of precious items and the like.
And if you had lied about what kind of weight you’re using, and mess around with the stone, it looks like it’s the right stone weight, and it’s not, you’re just deceiving them. You have unjust weights and measures. That’s what it’s talking about.
It’s economic lying. It’s a way of lying by selling less, pretending it’s more, or vice versa, and the like. Manipulating the weight of stones, using smaller vessels disguised as larger vessels, taking more gold or giving less grain.
Whatever the case is, in exchange and economics, when it’s wrong, it’s wrong. It’s a form of lying and deceitfulness. And I used this example before.
It’s a little annoyance of mine. Gas. What other common exchange? Common.
I don’t know some obscure thing in buying stocks or something, perhaps. But in common exchange, you go to the grocery store, you buy some clothes. Who pays down to the one-tenth penny? You don’t.
To me, that seems to be a clear example of this. It’s very small, but it’s a penny. I don’t know the history of it, but I surely don’t understand.
It doesn’t make sense. Just call it a penny. Where does the one-tenth come from? They round up to their advantage.
It’s really, really strange. It’s just sitting there staring at you, right? Someone correct me after church, but I don’t know. There’s no rationale for it.
We have pennies. We have nothing less than a penny. There are no hay pennies in America.
Or half pennies like they had in England. There’s something stinky and rotten in Denmark, it seems to me. It’s a clear example of it.
It’s not the end of the world. It’s very, very little. But it adds up to the oil companies, doesn’t it? And they get to round up.
So, in my mind, you see it, and you just round up. These kind of things happen, and they ought not to be doing these things. Especially to brothers and sisters, people who are of your nation state, of your neighborhood, and of your Christian religion.
And he continues on here. Shall I count pure those with the wicked scales? Right? The bag of deceitful weights. You have this bag, and you’re pretending it’s this much weight, and it really isn’t.
For her rich men are full of violence. So, in this case, it’s not probably the rich men themselves, because they’re rich. They’re not going to get their hands dirty.
They’re going to pay some hired hand, some bully, to scare you off your land, to threaten you with a sword, or kill you. I think a king did that once in the Old Testament, right? Yeah, that’s right. Stole his vineyard.
It wasn’t just him. It was the rich. The rich and the powerful.
And it continues on here. Verse 12. Her inhabitants have spoken lies in their tongues, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
It’s a nice, pretty way of saying, you’re full of it. They’re just liars lying lyingly. Okay? And they love it, and they do it very well.
Advertisement is very much like that in America. A lot of things really skirt on the edge and go to what I consider lying. You exaggerate so much, and consistently like that, it can become a form of lying very quickly.
Exaggeration as such is not a lie. Christ exaggerates for effect. It’s called rhetorical device.
That’s true. But we have a whole society based on that, unfortunately. In the name of free market.
To get people’s attention. Buy my product, right? Make me money, make me rich. So they lie with their mouth, not just with their balances.
Claiming the green is the freshest, perhaps, or the gold is the purest. In these Old Testament days, and you can imagine all the things you have today that people claim that they do. These are social injustices, as I am narrowly defining it here.
These are examples of that. Just injustices. I mean, the word social isn’t there in the Bible.
It doesn’t make it wrong. It may be more helpful to describe it that way, like I said, the second table of the law. And there is simply, and clearly in every instance here, a clear violation of God’s law.
Not some vague idea of equality. You all with me? Not some vague idea, but specifically God’s law says no unjust weights and measures. Make it fair, make it clean.
That’s equitable. A fair exchange of money or time and talent for another product. That’s it.
It’s been going on forever before we even had the theory of capitalism. And it’s there for a reason. That’s how God has designed it, and how it’s as fair as we can get it, this side of eternity, to exchange for things that we need and we don’t have.
Now God’s going to punish these unjust people. His people. Verses 13 to 16.
Unjust People Punished
Therefore I will also make you sick by striking you, by making you desolate because of your sins. You shall eat, but not be satisfied. Hunger.
You shall sow, verse 14, but not reap. You shall tread the olives, but not anoint yourself with oil. You will not get the produce of your labor.
And they were warned of this, of God’s justice for their sins against each other. Sins, by the way, that have reached such a critical point that it’s widespread in society. It’s not just, sure, we all sin, but if so much of it everywhere becomes so noticeable that you can just simply say, the rich are doing this.
It’s that prevalent. I don’t believe it’s every single rich, but enough of the rich has reached a critical warning point, is the point here. And we see that in our nation to some extent in various and sundry sins, and it’s the same here in Israel because we know they’ve always been sinners.
Someone surely at one time has done it. Now it’s become so bad it seems to be everywhere. Deuteronomy 28, 40.
Deuteronomy 28, 40. God warned them ahead of time. Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all the borders, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil.
I pretty much just read that, didn’t I? Verse 15. For thine olives shall cast as fruit, and they shall eat the increase of your livestock, that is strangers, and the produce of your land until you are destroyed. They shall not leave your grain or new wine or oil or the increase of your cattle or the offspring of your flocks until they have destroyed you.
They’re taking everything. And the Assyrians are going to do the same thing. This is the chapter on the curses of violating God’s covenant as a collective group of God’s people, the Church and the Old Testament.
And I believe those are still applicable to the extent that we are Christian nations or Christian communities or Christian families. It is a curse, I think even today, to have our forefathers, our grandparents, their parents, and your parents give you an inheritance collectively. Remember, this is not just you yourself, like libertarians.
It’s your family in conjunction with other families making laws and expectations and social structures and schools and investments that all have an interlocking web of connectivity that affect your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren. Do they not? Just think about it. And to have strangers come across and take all the blessings, well, that’s certainly not a good thing.
That’s what God’s threatening with, and they’re going to have it. And I think those things still happen today. I think we’re in the midst of it right now.
The sick and desolate, I don’t think he’s saying physically sick, but it could be, but I think certainly economically sick. You’re going to sin economically against your brothers? You’re going to be punished economically. That’s what God does.
That’s what you see here. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. That’s God’s justice.
Now we know it’s ultimately tempered, though, because those are his people, the remnant within Israel, the Jew, the true Jew. They’re going to be punished, yes, because it happens collectively, but they’ll learn, or they’ll survive, if they didn’t have that particular hand in sin and these things. Those who are not elect, they will have ultimate justice.
This is just a foretaste of those reprobate Jews who don’t repent, and they will have this forever and ever in hell. So you have two different objects again. Same punishment, different purposes, right, because the father in one case is now the judge in the other, although it’s the same people in the covenant of God collectively.
No eating of the fruits of the labor, as I pointed out. Eating without being full, you’re going to be hungry. Even those who try to escape, in verse 14, you may carry some away, but in the end the sword will kill them.
Which seems to imply you better just not run away, just stay, and be conquered and submit. You will sow and not reap. These are a terrible curse to go through all that effort and hard work through the harvest.
Who’s ever worked on a farm? Yeah, two or three of the older people. The rest of us are like, farm? They just stink, right? That’s what I remember of farm life in Germany, as I recall, visiting some friends or something like that. I just remember how stinky it was on the farm there.
That’s a lot of heartbreaking work. I’ve worked warehouse, medical warehouse, in the middle of summer. It was hard.
It was hot. And I’m sure working on the farm was worse. And you do it from sunup to sundown.
And then at the end of the season you get invaded and you lose it all. You lose your entire vestment, you lose your house, and you even lose your family. You don’t get to taste the fruit of your labors.
That’s a terrible curse. And God’s going to give it to them. Today, the example would be, if older Americans became greedy, then their labors would not prove fruitful to their own children.
Because, what was that old bumper sticker in the 80s and 90s? I’m using my kids’ inheritance. And they were proud of it. I don’t remember what the phrase was.
But that’s essentially what they were saying, I’m spending my kids’ inheritance. Well, way to go. That’s real loving.
And you think it’s funny, too. Put a little bumper sticker on it. That’s what they’ve done.
I went over some of that with respect to the middle class. Our forefathers, a generation ago, they’re just like, we want the money, we want the money. And it makes a generalized effect upon our society when enough of the rich people are greedy.
And they don’t want to give more money to the workers. As I mentioned, their productivity has gone up like 100%. They only got like a relatively 12% increase in pay or something along those lines.
Just an astronomically gross difference there. Because of greed. Against their own people.
There’s no love, unfortunately, in a lot of wicked people’s hearts. And rich, we’re seeing more and more. Not all of them, again.
Very much like this. Except, of course, here, there’s supposed to be those who follow Jehovah. And today we’re just a bunch of, well, whatever, pagans who follow ourselves, unfortunately.
But it’s the same principle, and God will judge them for it. Because you’re supposed to take care of your own nation and your own city and your own neighborhood. In reverse order.
Simple as that. Unbelievers are not immune from God’s law. The children go hungry, literally or financially, because now they’re poor.
As I said, this is the first generation where they’re not making as much as their forefathers. How’d that happen? I’ve given you some suggestions in that regards. In Micah, the old Reformed thought was this, that if we overburden the middle class, you’ll hurt the entire nation.
I mentioned that when I went through chapter 2 and 3, and I’ll think I’ll go over that again when I go over oppression, because repetition is the mother of learning. So some of these theories have been around a long time, because it’s a clear moral idea that if you want to help the most people, help those who can help the most people. And that’s the bulk, especially of the middle class, as well.
So, false worship is also punished. Verse 16, For the statutes, the laws, the commandments of Omri are kept, and all the works of Ahab’s house are done. And you walk in their councils.
You’re just a bunch of little idolaters. That’s what Omri was, the house of Omri. You remember him? Famously wicked king? He was so famous and so wicked, the pagans honored him.
And they recognized him when you dig up the archaeological digs. They call it the house of Omri, even though it was his son’s son’s son, because he was so respected by the pagans for his might and his power and his wickedness. And he enforced, especially, false, idolatrous worship.
He was the father of King Ahab. That’s what he’s talking about. In particular, false worship.
Claiming it to be God and Yahweh when it’s really not, and doing it their own way, strange fires. Today you’d have, what, entertainment worship, and the like. It’s the same thing.
God’s satisfied with what he tells us in his word, not with what we come up with in our minds how to worship him. And so Israel, or Jerusalem in particular, will be punished. A hissing is a way of showing disdain in the Middle East back then.
That’s what you see there at the end of verse 16. Your inhabitants, a hissing or an object of hissing before them. Disdain, and Jerusalem is eventually sacked.
You will bear the reproach. You will suffer the punishment of your sins. God punishes his people today, brothers and sisters.
Providential events, earthquakes, war, fire, and the like, are not necessarily tied to a particular sin, like poor money management is tied often to poverty. It’s a pretty clear cut there. You’re sloppy, you’re just throwing things around, you’re not investing, you’re not working hard.
Things are going to happen, and it’s not going to be good. Unless you’re in a highly communist society, a socialized society, then it’s just delayed for a while. No, providential events like earthquakes and fires and the like are not tied that way to particular sins, I think.
But the timing may be the same as the gross sin that you are struggling with in your life. In which case, it may be there to remind you to flee that sin. And so in the case of the forest fires in California, which is God’s hand, that’s God’s work, and we should stand in awe of it.
To the extent that Christians are struggling with materialism and loving their home and their possessions, and if they lose it all, it’s a lesson for them. So God is using providence to teach them to get rid of that idol, that coveting in their hearts, and cling to God. God says sometimes the way you learn it is by losing everything.
Sorry. And maybe that wasn’t a particular sin, in which case they’re still supposed to submit to God. And then it becomes a trial.
Will you say, as the Lord gives, the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Or will you rise up in anger and wrath? So you can still learn through providential difficulties, regardless if it’s directly or indirectly tied to your sin. It’s always and can be a wake-up call or a time to remind us that God is in control.
Individually and families, of course, may be not affecting others but themselves. Their bad decisions have consequences upon themselves and their families. You make a foolish financial decision against all sound advice, and you can live with debt for the rest of your life as well as your family.
And your kids had nothing to do with it. It’s your decision. So there you have a collective result of individual poor decision.
It happens a lot. That’s how God designed it. Local church offices, churches, are affecting more than one family.
If the majority of the people vote for a financially foolish action against all sound advice at a Congregational meeting, it’s going to affect the entire church. That’s all there is to it. That’s a form of punishment.
So here, what God does in His punishment is not just providential. I mentioned the providence, but also just the direct consequences of your actions. And, of course, poor leadership leads to these bad actions as well.
And God, for the sake of His people, when it’s bad consequences, it’s a form of punishment. It’s also a lesson for us to learn and grow thereby. And, in fact, we read in Matthew 5.13, You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown away and trampled underfoot by men.
Quite interesting there. Is that what’s happening in the West, perhaps? We’ve lost our savor as a church, collectively. Enough of us, a critical mass.
Punishment, especially for false worship. Sin is often its own punishment. Churches that entertain create families that are entertainment-oriented and individuals and couples who think in terms of entertainment because this is what they’re used to.
This is what they’re taught to think. And this is an expectation in their life. They have stunted spiritual growth.
They’re vulnerable to spiritual abuse and open to false teachings, all because they won’t take God’s Word seriously in worship and in preaching in particular. So pray for the American churches, brothers and sisters, that the wealthy Christians would not exploit the poor Christians. That happens.
Or ignore them. That happens a lot, I think. You heard me mention a few times about parachurch ministries and how the money gets siphoned that way.
Or recently, in which a battered women’s home, I think it was in Texas, is being threatened with a lawsuit because a guy thinking he’s something other than a guy wants to go to those facilities and he’s suing them. And I just kind of think, well, I mean, I’m glad they’re doing good things for pagan women getting beaten, but how much of those money can help for Christian women and men getting beaten and losing all their money and being thrown into poverty? Rich people, where’s their money going? I think it ought to go to the Christians first and we’re going to find a dividing line in my lifetime. We have to decide what we’re going to do with our monies.
I hope you help the church and each other. I think you will. And the rich among us especially.
To whom much is given, much is required. And I am rich. I consider myself rich.
And I have this responsibility for not only my family, but for you all. And the monies I have are to that end as well. And especially that the American churches would have an institute, true worship, not the worship of Omri and Ahab.
But pure worship. May God exercise his social justice effectively upon the church of God in America and that she would listen, submit, and grow under the chastening hand of our loving Father. Amen.
Let’s pray. Lord, with these words here, it can be hard to read this and say, ah, there’s not a lot of good news. But there is good news because you punish us because you love us.
If you hated us, you’d leave us to our own devices. If we were reprobate, you’d leave us alone. But we are not, and we are thankful, God, for your approaching hand upon us.
Help us submit to their by, Lord, even if we don’t have individual culpability with respect to many of these sins, God. Help us, Lord, help others fight against these sins and to stay pure, we pray. Amen.