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You know what keeps those things
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from coming in and just laying hold on me
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and carrying me away so that I make shipwreck?
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It's the Word, brethren.
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You get in the Word all the time.
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And what does the Word do?
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What is it that we do with one another
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when we exhort one another from the Word?
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There's a deceitfulness in sin,
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and there's the truth here.
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And what it does is it comes back,
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it brings us back again,
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today, every day, we come back,
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we're in this Word,
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and it helps us to see things right.
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I see things right.
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Brethren, we were having devotions the other day,
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and my wife says, "you know what jumped out at me?"
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"They spit on Him."
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And brethren, I'll tell you what,
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sometimes just a thought like that can come.
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And they spit on Him.
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You think about that.
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Those wicked men, those sinful men,
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and they spit on Christ.
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And you know what that can make me do?
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That can make me look at my bike and say,
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I'll ride it to get exercise, so that my mind is clear
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when I go to study the Scriptures,
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but I'm not making an idol out of it.
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Why?
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Because they spit on Him.
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You say, "I don't see the connection."
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I'll tell you what, there is one.
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And I feel it in my heart
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when I go to Scripture and I see things like that.
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They spit on Him.
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They spit on Him. How then should I walk?
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I need to walk worthy.
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And it's not making an idol out of that thing.
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And it's not doing this thing.
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And I'm not going to get snared by that.
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Because I love Him too much,
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and He got spit on for me.
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And I can see Him there with that spit
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coming down His face.
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No, I'm not going there.
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And you see the warnings,
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and you see, you come back to Christ.
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And over and over, and I'm not being drawn away by
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your things, why?
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Because I see your lies.
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When I look at Him, I find Him more beautiful.
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And you're a lie.
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And I see it and we come back.
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Brethren, the day David's friend went off
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and did whatever he did to leave church
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and lose his family,
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he was not in the Word that morning
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seeing how precious Christ was.
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And knowing the truth of God's Word.
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Today. That's what he's saying to us.
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Today. And he says, the Word of God,
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it is that which pierces into the heart.
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You can't reach your heart,
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but this Word can.
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And you get in it, and believe in it, brethren.
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It's not just reading it flippantly,
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it's not just doing your five minute little thing,
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it's getting in this Word prayerfully,
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it's getting in this Word so that you believe it,
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so that when the promises come,
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you believe it.
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Brethren, how do you say, you know what?
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I'm not sinking a bunch of money into some project here.
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I'm giving it to the ladies' Grace House.
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Because you were reading in Matthew 6
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and it says, don't store up treasures
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here, store it up there.
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And you say, wow, there really is treasure,
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and you get to meditating on it.
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Hey, the Lord's return rate must be a whole lot
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better than anything I can get in a mutual fund,
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or anything I can get in something here.
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And I'm going to give it there.
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Brethren, what this book does, is it fuels faith.
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And if you don't think that doesn't have anything to do
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with what's going here,
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brethren, you've got to remember,
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what in the world's happening by the time we
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get to Hebrews 11?
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It's all about faith. It's about faith.
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It's about people who endured.
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And they pressed through.
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Why? Because they had faith.
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And faith comes by what?
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Hearing. And hearing by what?
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Brethren, today.
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Today.
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If you don't get anything else out of this message,
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it is today, you have to be in this Word,
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every day as long as it's called today,
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you've got to be in this Word.
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And then that day as well,
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you've got to be taking what God shows you
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out of that Word, and you've got to
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be going and be exhorting others.
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And as we do it, brethren,
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our hearts don't get hardened
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by the deceitfulness.
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Because we keep shining the light on.
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Brethren, go into this book.
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Have your faith strengthened.
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Believe what's there.
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See the promises and above all,
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see the Christ.
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Your heart will have such things done to it
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that you keep going.
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It was Spurgeon that said some people
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can write "damnation" in the dust
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on their Bible.
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Not God's children.
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Man does not live by bread alone.
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Brethren, this is where we've got to feast.
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This is where we've got to live.
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I trust you see it in these verses.
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I trust you see it.
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This is what the writer said.
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He comes into this thing.
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He says, "pay much closer attention
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to what you have heard."
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What does that mean?
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Closer attention.
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Brethren, I've heard, and I know this in my own life,
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men who preach.
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And they say, one of the things
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that is a real help about preaching
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is the time it puts me in the Word.
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Because when I'm not preaching,
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I'm not in the Word as much.
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Brethren, I'll tell you what,
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there may be some reality to that,
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but that can't be an excuse.
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You may not be a preacher,
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but you've got to live in this Word just as much.
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And if that's a reality, and men that preach realize it,
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then how much we should be convinced,
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all of us.
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If it really helps us that much,
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then we've got to get into it.
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We've got to have discipline.
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We heard it in the Sunday school.
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Self control, brethren.
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We've got to be self controlled.
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We've got to buffet this body.
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Brethren, be in the Word.
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If there's discipline in any place in your life,
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it's to be in this Word.
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It's to see Christ.
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You've got to live on Christ.
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You've got to walk with Christ.
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You've got to see Christ.
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You've got to trust Christ.
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You've got to believe on Him.
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And brethren, not just some figment of your imagination.
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You've got to believe on Him as He really is,
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and this shows us Him - how He really is.
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And when you see Him as He really is,
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that keeps you from falling away.
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Because when you go here,
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you see Him for what He really is,
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and you see the bike, or the investment,
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or the lawn project, or the new car
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for what they really are.
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The money making endeavor,
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the new t.v.,
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Facebook,
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cable t.v.,
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Detroit Tigers,
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you see them for what they really are.
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And they're not much when you compare them to Christ.
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But you don't think that way, brethren.
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Your heart isn't geared that way
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unless you're in here all the time.
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You show me somebody that drifts
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and falls away, and you'll see it right here,
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in their interaction in the Word.
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Guarantee it.
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Brethren, that's the calling.
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Today. Today.
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Every day as long as it's called today.
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Hear His voice.
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Hear it.
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That implies He's speaking.
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Put yourself where you can hear Him.
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God help us, brethren.
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Amen.