In the sermon 'You Shall Not Commit Adultery,' Pastor Mike Davenport discusses the gravity of sexual sin, emphasizing the biblical commandment against adultery. He uses a metaphor of relabeling poison to illustrate the danger of redefining sin in milder terms. The sermon explores how the world has replaced God's labels on sexual sins with more acceptable terms, leading to moral decay. Key biblical examples, including David's sin with Bathsheba and the story of Amnon and Tamar, highlight the severe consequences of such sins. Davenport explains that Jesus' teaching in Matthew 5 expands adultery beyond physical acts to include lustful thoughts, indicating that sexual sin begins in the heart. Personal responsibility in guarding one's heart and maintaining sexual purity is underscored. The sermon concludes with a call to repentance and reliance on Christ's righteousness, not one's own, to fulfill God's commandments.

Exodus 20 verse 14, You shall not commit adultery. In the early nineteen hundreds, the Australian pastor Henry Howard once preached a strong message of sin. Afterward an officer of his church said to him, Mr. Howard we don't want you to talk as plainly as you do against sin. Call it a mistake if you will, but do not speak so plainly about sin." Howard took down a small bottle and showed it to the man.

It was the bottle of strychnine and was marked poison. He said, I see what you want me to do. You want me to change the label. Suppose I take up of this label of poison and put on some mild labels such as essence of peppermint. Don't you see what happens?

The milder you make your label, the more dangerous you make your poison. Dear ones, the world around us has removed every biblical label of poison and replaced it with a milder label, a safer label. And you're familiar with the labels when it comes to sexual sins. You've seen these labels before. It's two consenting adults.

It's natural. It's just part of human nature and experience. For me, it's, it's genetic. I was born this way. I'm wired this way.

Come on now, it doesn't hurt to look. But this, this is real love. And then you have the whole idea of safe sex. The Church of Jesus Christ cannot look to the world or culture to determine what sin is. We are not at liberty to determine the bounds even for ourselves.

Sin is simply sin because it is a contradiction of who God is in his nature and what he has commanded because of his nature, because of his attributes. This commandment uses the word adultery. The broadness of the law of God as Psalm 119 declares that instructs us that there is more to this command than simple adultery as we typically define adultery in our day. So what does the scripture forbid? What is considered as sexual sin?

And can we trust any of the labels that the world has supplied? Well let's take the actual word first that scripture uses in the command adultery, adultery, And you'll notice that these words that we'll look at as you go on in the Pentateuch, it talks about these various things being a violation of the law of God. Well the most prominent sin of adultery in Scripture is no doubt David's sin with Bathsheba. David's sin came about by several things. First of all, David was not where he was supposed to be.

He was not where he was supposed to be. He was supposed to be with his men in battle. Scriptures tell us it was the time when kings went out to make war. Second, David indulged his eyes. He did not turn away his gaze.

Third, David entertained in his mind and in his heart faults of lust. The fire kindled by the gaze was stoked and fed fuel until forth David brought Bathsheba into his embrace. It's the pattern of sin that we see in James 1, 14 to 15, but each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin and sin when it is full grown brings forth death. And look at the death that ensued.

Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, was murdered in cold blood. In 2nd Samuel 12, 10 to 14 we read the Word of God that was brought by Nathan the prophet. It was this, Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house Because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife did you hear those words you have despised me the living God thus says the Lord behold I will raise up adversity against you from your own house and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this son for you did it secretly but I will do this thing before all Israel before the son and Nathan said to David because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who was born to you shall surely die. And the only reason that God spared the life of David is because he repented. Verse 13 says, so David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord.

And Nathan said to David, the Lord also has put away your sin. You shall not die. But we know in Psalm 51, before he truly repented, his body was waxing worse and worse. He was on that road to an early death himself had he not repented. We read in the scriptures of fornication.

Fornication. Generally it's thought of differently in fornication occurring between two unmarried individuals. In Genesis 34 we read of the account of Jacob's daughter Dinah who yearns to learn more about the ways of the world. Okay. We are simply told that she went to see the daughters of the land.

Well, this search brought her into the society of the prince of the country, Shechem, and it eventually brought her into his bed. Simeon and Levi, the brothers of Dinah, took vengeance into their own hands and this by sinful deception. They went to the city and slew all the males there with their swords while they were in their recovery time from having done what these men had wanted them to do and being circumcised, the steps being taken to join this people of God. Here's how Matthew Henry described the scene. Alas, how one sin leads to another and like flames of fire spread desolation in every direction.

Foolish pleasures led to seduction. Seduction produces wrath. Wrath thirsts for vengeance. The thirst of vengeance has recourse to treachery. Treachery issues and murder and murder is followed by other lawless actions.

Were we to trace the history of unlawful commerce between the sexes We should find it more than any other sin ending in blood end quote We have the sin of rape the sin of rape Second Samuel 13 provides the history of more sexual immorality within the house of David. In this chapter we read of the evil deeds of Amnon who deviously planned and carried out the raping of his half-sister. How did this come about? Evil company. Evil company.

Amnon had a friend, Johnadab, whom the scriptures describe as a very crafty man. It was through the evil counsel of Johnadab that Amnon was encouraged to loose the reins of his lust. Johnadab didn't cause the sin. Amnon was burning with lust. Johnadab just helped him understand how he could loose the reins on that lust.

And we see in the chapters that follow what transpires because of this sin. Absalom murders Amnon in an evil plot of his own. And then the events that unfolded after this murder filled Absalom's rebellious heart, such as he runs his father out of town right out of Jerusalem and then he commits sexual immorality with the concubines that remain at the palace and did so in the presence of the entire nation under the sun and this is what God had said would come as a result of David's initial sin. The sin of incest. The end of chapter 19 of Genesis describes the decimation of Lot's family.

The last few verses describe the impact on Lot's family, having lived in a city given over to sexual perversion. Lot's daughters seem unconcerned with the heinous nature of their own devious plans. You see their conscience had been seared, living in the midst of sexual perversion. They thought nothing of it. The New Testament actually describes Lot as a righteous man.

A fact that probably required the necessity of the excess of wine in order for their plans to work. And the awful results of this sin, they're not immediately evident, but this sin of incest resulted in the forming of two nations that proved to be a thorn in the side of God's people for generations. For from these acts of sin arose the fathers of the nations of Ammon and Moab. In that same chapter, Genesis 19, we also come face to face with the sexual sin of sodomy. The word reflects the name of this city of Sodom where we read of the sexual perversion that they wanted to carry out with these two visitors that had come to lodge under the roof of Lot.

Romans 1, 26 through 27 reveals more of the nature of this sin where we read that for this reason God gave them up to vile passions for even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust for one another. Men with men committing what is shameful. God considers the sin of homosexuality as vile, as unnatural, and as shameful. Paul finishes that declaration with this, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error, which was due. We certainly see what God brought upon the inhabitants of Sodom, And as we saw in the study of Jude some months ago, Sodom and Gomorrah are set forth as an example, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, they suffered the vengeance of eternal fire.

There are obviously other sexual perversions that this commandment condemns such as masturbation, bestiality, or pedophilia. It also condemns the sins of prostitution, sex trafficking, bigamy, and polygamy. You know, there was a time in this culture when God's labels on these things were firmly applied. Didn't matter where you went. But brothers and sisters those days are largely behind us.

And I fear that days ahead will prove the addition of yet more labels on some of these that are still not widely accepted today. We are living in a day where God's labels on these sins I have just pointed out they have to be reapplied the Church of Christ is called to be the pillar in the ground of truth and therefore we must call sin sin We must call it what God calls it. If the poison label is to be reapplied, it will be the church. It'll be incumbent upon us to reapply that label. You know, God pronounces judgment on those who remove his labels.

In Isaiah 5, 18 to 20, we read, woe, woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as if it were a cart rope. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for better. Now if those things, those deeds, those actions were all that this commandment forbids, No doubt there would be some among us even now who would begin feeling a little bit like that rich young ruler that that you've kept these from your youth up. At least about maybe this commandment maybe not some of the others but with this commandment maybe you feel from what we've seen thus far that you've kept this from your youth up. But if we think that the commandment stops there in what it forbids, if we think that those who are breakers of the law in these things are the only breakers of this commandment then we like the religious leaders of Jesus day need to hear what Christ the lawgiver has to say.

So turn with me in the scriptures to Matthew 5, 27 and 28. Matthew 5, 27 through 28. And let me just say again as we try to say from this pulpit many times the use of hermeneutics is important, the use of your tools for interpreting Scripture, this passage sheds light on what God commands in the seventh commandment. We'll just focus on verses 27 and 28 and the two verses that follow that will come at another time. Matthew 5, 27 and 28, you have heard Jesus speaking here, you have heard that it was said to those of old You shall not commit adultery But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Brethren do we need another text to convince us that sexual sin has more to do with us than simply our reproductive organs. Here is Christ, Christ, God in the flesh, the giver of the law, bringing clarity to the law. It is he who speaks and not another. The commandment itself is the very word of the living God. And this text is no less the same.

It is spoken by the one who says, I am the truth. It is spoken by him who is called the living Word of God, by him who is the image of the invisible God, the one whom Hebrews 1-2 tells us, the one through whom God the Father himself has spoken. He does not speak on his own authority but on the authority of his father who sent him. In Deuteronomy 18, 18 and 19, God tells Moses about the coming of his son Jesus, I will raise up for them a prophet like you Moses from among their brethren and will put my words into his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him and it shall be that whoever it shall be that whoever will not hear his words which he speaks in my name I will require it of him Christ says that adultery begins in the heart. In the heart.

And dear ones, it's adultery even if it goes no further than that. Note the words Christ uses, has already, already committed adultery with her in his heart. You see sexual sin is is not just simply a defilement of the bed. It's a defilement of the heart. You, my dear friend, you alone are responsible for the keeping of your heart.

Keeping your heart with all diligence. That's your duty. Yes, sometimes there may be images that cross your path in a store, driving through your neighborhood. Something outside of your control may pass before your eyes, but what is in your control are the doors into your heart. Guests may come to the gates of your ears and your eyes, but it's your duty to keep them out.

You see, the swing of those gates can only happen from the inside. Nobody from the outside can force those gates open. Those things may be there, but if the gates open, you dear one have opened those gates. But let's talk a little more about those things more under our control. Let's talk a little bit more about the immoral woman that we read about in Proverbs 7, because sometimes it's not this bombardment of images that come across our path that we are left to deal with.

Proverbs 7 is as much about the unbridled lust of a foolish and immature man as it is about the crafty and alluring, immoral woman. So we want to put it all there on that. But it's as much about the lustful, foolish man. And what does it say about this man? Well, Solomon describes him as a foolish young man, a man devoid of understanding.

Solomon saw him passing along the street near her corner, and he took the path to her house in the twilight in the evening and in the black of night. In a crowd this size, there's no doubt some of you looking at pornography. Is it you? Is it you? You may not physically, with your own feet, pass by the street near her corner.

You may not take the actual street to her house or to some hotel somewhere, at least not today. At least you tell yourself you would never get to that point. But my friend she will always be found on that corner. You know that though, don't you? But your desires have employed your fingertips to take you down a path that your feet have not been released yet to take you.

It's not a physical address you are seeking, it's an internet address, at least at the moment. She is waiting there for all simple and foolish men or women who were devoid of understanding. And though you have all the biblical reason in the world to stop and turn around, you press on. It's not even necessary to wait for the darkness of night, the twilight for cover. You see often you are alone and there's no one around, no one to discover, at least that is what you convince yourself of.

God is in none of your thoughts. In those moments, God is in none of your thoughts. Him who says our secret sins are there in the light, in the light of his presence. Your conscience is awakened and it warns you, but you've ignored that voice time and time again. Unable to silence the voice of conscience, you seek to ignore it.

You tell yourself, you can quit anytime. You tell yourself, this is the last time. But Solomon teaches us in Proverbs 27 20, held in destruction are never full, so the eyes of man are never satisfied. That could never happen to me, you might say. Really?

Solomon gives voice to a man who once thought as you, but who was brought to the realization of this in Proverbs 5 14, I was on the verge of total ruin in the midst of the assembly and congregation. Right here, right in the midst of God's people, was a man who said, I was on the verge of total ruin. You've been to the ocean, haven't you? You know, you go out there, down to the beach, set a chair up, maybe an umbrella, got your towel there, maybe a cooler with lunch, and you go out in the water. And I'm not talking about ankle or calf deep, I'm talking about, you know, over your waist out there really enjoying the water.

And what happens? You look back up to where, you know, you left maybe one of your family members or just your stuff. Where did he go? You know what it is, right? It's...

How did it move up there? It didn't move. You went in the water there, but now you're here. It happens. And that's the way it is with our hearts.

That's the way it is with our hearts. Jesus makes it clear in his preaching. Sexual sin is a sin of the heart. It's a drift. It's unholy desires that are pandered, that are fed, that are entertained, and that dear ones is sin even if those desires never break out into deeds and actions.

We want to be like the Pharisee, Lord I thank you, I'm not like that man. Instead of saying God have mercy on me the sinner, God have mercy. Yet if such deeds and actions as we covered earlier in the message are carried out, do understand what was behind it. You are not a victim. Blame cannot be placed on the circumstances.

It's not the fault of another. That young man in Proverbs 7 can't blame the crafty woman when his lust took him nearby the corner where she was, the path that led to her house. Is she guilty? Yes. Is he guilty?

Yes. Because in his heart he had committed adultery with her already. The heart of the matter is the matter of the heart Jesus made it clear we we read it earlier in our service what comes out of a man that defiles a man for from within out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts adulteries fornications all these evil things come from within and defile a man. We also must not be drawn into trying to categorize pornography into different levels as to find a level we're comfortable with. Anytime Hollywood provides you with the opportunity to enter into vicariously the sexual pleasures that are being conveyed through images be it nudity, partial nudity, suggestiveness, lewdness, immodesty, or any sexual activity to participate in that vicariously in the recesses of your mind and your heart.

That is the breaking of this commandment. So let's be done with the world's labels. Let's be done with the world's entertainment. Let's learn to hate the work of those that turn aside. Let's excel at hating the sin our Savior died to save us from.

And let's reapply God's labels. Let's call sin sin. Let's declare what God has to say about it, not only in regard to his assessment of it, but also in the judgment that he will bring because of it. I'm sure that at some time you've picked up a prescription from the pharmacy, right? What always comes with the prescription, you know, it's on that small bag, stapled to it, usually several pages, several pages.

Pages of possible side effects, how to take it, warning labels, you'll find warning labels sometimes on the side of the actual medicine bottle, but the sheets explain in greater detail what those labels actually mean and and what will happen if you ignore them? Well, scripture gives us pages and pages of just such attachments. They help us to understand what the label is saying and gives us not possible side effects but actual actual side effects and these are the labels and warnings that the world doesn't want you to know about. Proverbs 6 26 through 33 listen to all of these warning labels. Proverbs 6 26 to 33 for by means of a harlot, a man is reduced to a crust of bread.

And an adulteress will prey upon his precious life. Can a man take fire to his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be seared? So is he. So is he who goes into his neighbor's wife.

Whoever touches her shall not be innocent. Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding. He who does so, listen, destroys his own soul. Wounds and dishonor he will get in his reproach will not will not be wiped away. Proverbs 7 21 to 27 the the aftermath of what we've already seen in Proverbs 7.

With her enticing speech, she caused him to yield. With her flattering lips, she seduced him. Immediately, he went after her as an ox goes to the slaughter or as a fool to the correction of the stocks till an arrow struck his liver As a bird hastens to the snare, he did not know it would cost his life. Now therefore, listen to me, my children, pay attention to the words of my mouth. Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways.

Do not stray into her paths, for she has cast down many wounded, and all who were slain by her were strong men. By her were strong men her house is the way to hell descending to the chambers of death Proverbs 9 13 to 18 a foolish woman is clamorous she is simple and knows nothing for she sits at the door of her house on a seat by the highest places of the city to call to those who pass by, who go straight on their way. Whoever is simple, let him turn in here. And as for him who lacks understanding, she says to him, stolen water is sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant, but he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of hell. First Corinthians 6, 9 and 10, do you not know, here we are, the same thing, lack of understanding, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not, will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor homosexuals nor sodomites will inherit the kingdom of God. 1st Corinthians 6 18, flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Hebrews 13 for and if nothing else had been said so far there was this label should be enough Hebrews 13 for but fornicators and adulterers God will judge God will judge so I have a few questions after all that we've covered Will you cast aside God's labels that have sought to be reapplied by means of this message?

These labels just read. Will you seek to cover them? Do you already have your own label that you want to apply? To what God has said? Puritanical fruitish old-fashioned archaic outdated Fruitish, old-fashioned, archaic, outdated.

Are the world's ways better than God's ways? Is the devil a better master than Jesus Christ? Do you think that you can go to heaven holding on to your sin? The last text I would have you to look at is 1 Thessalonians 4. First Thessalonians 4.

First Thessalonians 4. First Thessalonians for just the first eight verses. Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For This is the will of God, your sanctification. And you may say, amen.

But what does Paul say that sanctification involves? That you should abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God, that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness but in holiness therefore he who rejects this does not reject man but God who has also given us his Holy Spirit. What do we learn from this text? Well, we learn at least the following five things.

Sexual purity is the will of God. It is the will of God. God has spoken. God has spoken. The commandment is clear.

Do you see your own moral purity as that? The very will of God. Secondly, the Christians sanctification involves fleeing sexual immorality and mortifying inner passions and lust. Titus, too, makes it clear that the grace that saves us has appeared to all men, teaching us what? That we are to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly and righteously and godly.

Sanctification is measured both by the things we do as well as by the things that we don't do. Third, sexual sins are associated here in Scripture with the Gentiles, with those who do not know God. You know, sexual sin has always been at the heart of false worship. Whether that false worship was purely Canaanite worship or whether it was a perversion of God's holy worship even as carried out by Eli's sons. If sexual sin, even a fault in heart, is raining over you and you are not actively seeking to put it to death, then you have reason to doubt that you truly know God, no matter your pedigree, no matter your position in the church, even if it's in this pulpit.

It's associated with those who do not know God. Fourth, sexual sins are not only against God, they are that primarily, but we see here that it is also taking advantage of and defrauding others. Sexual sins are a sin against God and His will as well as against others and their well-being. And then fifth, a rejection of this commandment and the breadth of its application. Dear ones, it's not a rejection of me, the preacher.

It's a rejection of God. It's a... If you have issues, well what I've said this morning, you have issues with God, not with me. God, not with me. This is made clear in Romans eight, but you are not in the flesh.

If you're a Christian, you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. Now, if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he is not his. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live for as many as are led by the Spirit of God. These, these, and I can add these alone are the sons of God Do not be deceived fornicators and adulterers whether in deed or in thought and heart God will indeed judge They will not They will not inherit the kingdom of God.

For this is the will of God, your sanctification that you should abstain from sexual immorality. Well we have sought to bring clarity to what this commandment forbids, but there is more to this commandment than what God forbids. God's Word is clear that God created human sexuality, but He created it with bounds. And God smiles, smiles upon the sexual activity of an undefiled marriage bed where a married man with his wife take pleasure in the two-person union that God himself designed and blessed. And the Lord willing will seek to take up at the future time the duties because as we've seen through the commandments already it's not just what's forbidden it's what's required and Lord willing will do that but dear ones we we must not lose sight of the things that we established at the very beginning of this series.

The purpose of the law is not for you to establish your own righteousness. That's not the purpose. The law was never intended for that. The law was given to establish the righteousness of God. It was given so that we would come to know Jesus not simply as the lawgiver but the lawkeeper on our behalf.

Romans 10 is clear, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For the scripture says whoever believes on him will not be put to shame for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek for the same Lord over all is rich rich To all who call upon him for whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved If your sin has been revealed this day By this law of God Which is like a searching light Then the right Response the right response is to repent to repent and to believe Fresh on the Lord Jesus Christ and put your hope in him who kept this law perfectly. Perfectly. If you call upon the Lord you will be saved. Consider these words from Spurgeon.

When thinking of my state before God, the question is not, am I perfect in myself before the law? But Am I perfect in Christ Jesus? That's a very different matter. We need not inquire Am I without sin naturally? But have I been washed in the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness?

It is not am I in myself well pleasing to God? But it is, am I accepted in the beloved? The Christian views his evidences from the top of Sinai and grows alarmed concerning his salvation. It were better far, he says, if he read his title by the light of Calvary. Ah, believer, it is safer always for you to be led of the Spirit into gospel liberty than to wear legal fetters.

Judge yourself at what Christ is rather than at what you are. Satan will try to mar your peace by reminding you of your sinfulness and imperfections. You can only meet his accusations by faithfully adhering to the gospel and refusing to wear the yoke of bondage. You may be here without Christ. You may be here without Christ and you don't have a high priest who plead your case.

And whether you will acknowledge it or not, you stand in need of the righteousness of another, for all your righteousness is like filthy rags. The only righteousness that will satisfy the holy and just demands of the wrath of God is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That righteousness alone. Christ is known to his people as Jehovah Tzedkenu. Jehovah tzedkenu, which simply means the Lord my righteousness, the Lord my righteousness.

And may God make the words of Robert Murray McChain, your own experience today. I once was a stranger to grace and to God. I knew not my danger and felt not my load. Though friends spoke in rapture of Christ on the tree, Jehovah's in Kenya was nothing to me. I oft read with pleasure to soothe or engage Isaiah's wild measure and John's simple page, but even when they pictured the blood sprinkled tree, Jehovah's in Kenu seemed nothing to me.

Like tears from the daughters of Zion that roll, I wept when the waters went over his soul, yet thought not that my sins had nailed to the tree Jehovah's in Kenu. It was nothing to me. When free grace awoke me by light from on high, then legal fears shook me. I trembled to die. No refuge, no safety in self could I see.

Jehovah's in Kenya, My Savior must be. My terrors all vanished before the sweet name. My guilty fear banished. With boldness I came to drink at that fountain life-giving and free. Jehovah said, can you?

It's all thanks to me. Jehovah said, can you my treasure and boast Jehovah's in Kenya I ne'er can be lost in thee shall I conquer by blood, by flood, and by field, my cable, my anchor, my breast, plate, and shield, even treading the valley, the shadow of death. This watchword shall rally my faltering breath, for while from life's fever my God sets me free, Jehovah's in Kenu my Death song shall be. Do you know him? Is he your righteousness?

You need him. You need him. May God give you grace to come to him in faith. Let's pray. Gracious God, we thank you.

Oh Lord, we are sinners through and through. Lord, all our righteousness is like filthy rags in your sight. But oh, the righteousness of Jesus Christ, you making him who knew no sin to be made sin for us that we might be made your righteousness in him. We marvel at sovereign saving grace. Lord, help us to fall fresh again upon that grace found in Him and to drink deeply of the waters of salvation.

We pray all these things in Christ's Holy Name. Amen.