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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.